A press release of the Archdiocese of Hanoi reports that "Police attacked the [Dong Chiem parish on Wednesday], in the early morning, when both its pastor and the pastor’s assistant were at the annual retreat in the Archbishop Office. An estimated 500 heavily armed and well-entrenched police officers and a large number of trained dogs were deployed in the area to protect an army engineering unit that destroyed a large crucifix erected on a boulder inside the parish cemetery,"
News accounts indicate that the police attacked parishioners who had "rushed to the site to protect their crucifix". At least six parishioners were hurt, with at least two of those sustaining serious injuries. One article describes the incident as "one of the most serious recent incidents in a long-running series of church-state land disputes."
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