Squad leader fired for beating family

The leader of an urban management squad who beat up a family out for a Sunday stroll in the park in Hefei, Anhui Province was fired on Monday.

Three officers were also given disciplinary penalties, authorities said. They reportedly mistook the family for pyramid scheme salespeople.

An official from the Anhui Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau was walking with his parents, wife and relatives at Swan Lake when the officers approached and - without explanation - beat them with bamboo staff.

Six were injured, one with a broken back.

Sunday's attack was just the latest in a series of violent incidents across the country involving urban management officers, or chengguan.

Five chengguan were beaten by a crowd in Zhejiang Province on Friday.