A deputy Party secretary of South China's Guangdong Province has ordered an investigation into the alleged beating up of eight journalists who were trying to report on a fatal car accident.

"Anyone who broke the law must be dealt with," said Wang Huayuan.

The journalists, from three local newspapers and a TV station, were apparently stopped by security guards and at least one township government worker at the scene of an accident on a bridge in Guangzhou.

It is said they were then dragged into a dark room and beaten, in the early hours of Monday just after the accident.

Three of them were slightly injured and their cameras damaged when the attackers tried to grab their equipment.

The car accident killed three in the vehicle, which broke through railings along the Renhe Bridge in Renhe Town, Baiyun District, and fell into the reservoir underneath.

The security guards were sent by the township government to help keep order on the bridge after the accident.

A man who reportedly went out from the township government building complex even tried to stop medical workers from a local hospital treating the reporters.

The township police did not get to the site for more than an hour after receiving a call from the journalists for help, local media reported.

The police took the journalists away for questioning and are investigating.

Township government officials were not available for comment. Only the director of the general affairs office of the township people's congress talked to the media, talking of regret and blaming poor communication between the relevant parties.

Source: China Daily