BEIJING • Chinese police shot dead one man and injured another during an apparent protest over the weekend at a construction site in central China, police have said.

Around a dozen people on Saturday "gathered at a construction site in the city and blocked construction vehicles amid disputes", police in the city of Luoyang in Henan province said yesterday.

Officers killed a man after some protesters in the group - who were not carrying firearms - "assaulted the police", and attempted to grab their weapons, police added, saying two warning shots had been fired.

Another man was injured and is in hospital. The reason for the dispute was not given.

Chinese farmers often protest outside building sites attempting to win compensation for seized land, which local governments sell to developers as a source of income.

Regular police in major Chinese cities began patrolling with guns for the first time last year in response to a deadly mass knifing blamed on separatists from the north-western region of Xinjiang.

State media has reported a number of fatal shootings by police since the policy was enacted.

Officers in the city of Xian last month shot dead a man who allegedly attacked several people at a train station with a concrete brick.

In May, the shooting of a man at a train station in north-east China prompted a media outcry about the apparent use of excessive force by police.

State media later released showed footage of him brawling with an officer before being shot. Gun violence is comparatively rare in China, where the government tightly restricts ownership of firearms.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE