China Evacuees Tell a Nightmare of Horror

A teen-age girl bayoneted in a street and hotel residents grabbing makeshift weapons while under siege from mobs were among the nightmarish images recalled by distraught foreigners reaching Hong Kong today after fleeing the turmoil in China.

“It’s better not to speak. It’s better not to speak. It’s unbelievable what those bloody people did,” an Italian businessman said of the scene in the central city of Chengdu where he said he saw a girl bayoneted to death Sunday morning.

The businessman, who asked not to be identified because he might have to return to China, said that from the window of his office he saw soldiers arrive in a truck, fire tear gas and advance with fixed bayonets, shooting as they went.

Left Body on Street

“I saw with my own eyes a girl, 15 to 16 years old, with a bayonet inside,” said the businessman, holding both hands to his stomach.

He said the girl was about 20 yards away from him at the time. The soldier then bayoneted her twice more in the chest and left the body on the street.

A British businessman returning from the same city said: “Chengdu is burning. It is seriously out of control.”

He said the violence there started Sunday after news from Beijing of the army’s crushing of the pro-democracy demonstrations reached the city, which he said was now ruled by mobs.

On Monday night he and another foreigner were in the Jinjiang Hotel when it was attacked by a mob and a small fire was started.

About 45 foreigners moved to the private quarters of the U.S. Consulate, in a wing of the hotel on the second floor.

‘We Could Hear the Mob’

“We put beds, bookcases and cabinets against the doors. We could hear the mob downstairs. We primed fire extinguishers and got what makeshift weapons we could,” the man said.

British engineer Rob Casey, 47, who also took shelter in the consulate, said the rioters were hooligans and unemployed troublemakers, not students.

Another businessman, who declined to be identified, said he was in the Beijing Hotel near Tian An Men Square on Sunday when troops and tanks moved in to clear the square.

“I watched a massacre at 10 o’clock in the morning,” he said.

The businessman said he counted 30 bodies lying on the street after soldiers fired on unarmed civilians. He said that when ambulance crews arrived, the troops opened fire on them.

Visibly Upset

“I saw probably 100 people killed,” said Murray Davis, 29, a student from Brisbane, Australia. “It was appalling and it could easily have been me.”

Some travelers were elated at reaching Hong Kong but most were solemn or visibly upset.

“We consider China our home and did not want to leave,” one woman said. “But they have been accusing foreigners of instigation and we thought to stay might endanger our Chinese friends.”