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Shanghai police detain anti-maglev rail protesters
12 Jan 2008 07:07:12 GMT
 Source: Reuters
SHANGHAI, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Police in China's commercial hub of Shanghai detained scores of people on Saturday holding a protest against a planned extension of the city's magnetic levitation train, or "maglev", worried it would emit radiation.

Police bundled demonstrators who had gathered in front of the city government into cars and buses, while more than 100 others shouted, "We don't want the maglev".

"We are afraid how the radiation will affect us. Why does the government not listen to our concerns?" said a protester surnamed Guan, adding the extension would pass within 100 metres (328 ft) of her house.

Some people managed to shout out of the windows of police vehicles before being driven away: "We have done nothing wrong. Why are we being detained?"

China has the only commercial maglev in operation in the world, developed and built by the government and a German consortium including industrial giant Siemens <SIEGn.DE>.

Launched in 2003, the maglev floats on a magnetic cushion over a distance of 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) between the outlying part of Shanghai's financial district in Pudong and the international airport.

The government wants to extend it to downtown Shanghai, and then possibly to the nearby tourist city of Hangzhou.

(Reporting by Royston Chan, writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)


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