Twenty-four people have been questioned by police in connection with the beating to death of a man filming a conflict between parapolice urban administration personnel and villagers in central China's Hubei Province, local government said Tuesday.

Wei Wenhua, 41, general manager of a Tianmen City construction firm, was beaten to death Monday afternoon when he was trying to record with his cell phone a clash between more than 50 staff of the Tianmen urban administration bureau and residents of Wanba village.

Wang Shutang, the company's party chief who was in the same car with Wei when the incident happened, said the urban administration staff continued to beat Wei for several minutes even after he had surrendered his cell phone.

The villagers had refused a garbage vehicle from a sanitation branch of the bureau to dump garbage at the garbage site near the village.

Doctors said Wei had stopped breathing when he was sent to the No. 1 People's Hospital in Tianmen.

Bie Bixiong, Communist Party chief of Tianmen, said the murderers would be seriously punished according to law and those with dereliction of duty would also be held accountable.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2008)