(AFP) – Nov 7, 2008

BEIJING (AFP) — Authorities in a southern Chinese city have offered a cash payment to the relatives of a motorcyclist whose death prompted hundreds of rioters to attack police, state media reported on Sunday.

The city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province was calm on Sunday, police told AFP, following riots that broke out Friday afternoon and raged into the early hours of Saturday.

The violence was sparked by anger over the death of Li Guochao, 31, who crashed into a lamppost after a local police official threw a walkie-talkie at him as he sped away from a checkpoint, according to police officials.

The local government has offered a 20,000 yuan (2,930 dollars) cash payment to Li's family, who had led the protests, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Li's family had initially demanded 60,000 yuan, but the compromise amount was reached through negotiations with local government officials, it said.

The government would recoup the payment from those deemed "responsible" for the death, it said.

"The relatives have agreed to accept the payment," the paper said.

The paper gave no further details on who the responsible party was, but Shenzhen police had said earlier that the official who threw the walkie-talkie had been detained.

The official is a staffer in the Shenzhen police propaganda department, state media said.

Li had been stopped at the checkpoint in the city's Bao'an district. When he sped away the official threw the walkie-talkie at Li, who lost control of his motorcycle and crashed, a police statement said.

Li died in hospital a few hours later.

Calm had been restored by Saturday morning, witnesses told AFP, albeit amid a visibly heightened police presence in the district.

"The situation is back to normal. There are no new developments," a Shenzhen police spokesman told AFP by phone on Sunday.

Li's relatives had gathered a mob that swelled to more than 400 people late Friday, the police statement said. They threw stones and set fire to a police car, it added.

They were dispersed around 2:00 am on Saturday. There were no other reports of injuries.

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