Chinese peasants wounded in attack over land dispute: paper.

HONG KONG, Nov. 7 Kyodo

About 50 peasants in China's southwestern Guangxi autonomous region were wounded by eight gunmen who stormed into a pearl cultivating company amid a peasant dispute with the firm over a land use on Sunday, a Hong Kong newspaper said Tuesday.

Eight of the peasants wounded are still in serious condition, the Ming Pao Daily News reported.

The attack took place in Yingpan, near Beihai city in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous Region, when some 200 peasants there alleged the pearl farming company excavated on their land, turning it into a shrimp pond without their approval.

The gunmen stormed into the company and fired shots at the peasants during the argument, the newspaper said.

A spokesman for the Beihai municipal public security bureau, however, declined to comment on the news report Tuesday.

''Our leaders say the matter is yet to be clearly investigated and they are still finding out about the whole situation,'' the spokesman said without elaborating.

But Ming Pao reported the Chinese police have arrested several suspects in the case.

The newspaper added leading officials in Beihai are very concerned about the matter and had visited the wounded peasants admitted to a hospital in the city.