China crushes mass protest by bank depositors demanding their life savings back
Hundreds in China's Henan province attended a banking protest on Sunday which quickly turned violent after a clash with a group of unidentified men.
Protestors said the banks had frozen their deposits because of supposed upgrades to their internal systems, but had not been in communication since, reports BBC.
Some 39bn yuan ($5.8bn; £4.9bn) is believed to have been frozen, leaving hundreds of thousands affected.
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Authorities later said they would announce a plan to address the issue.
The incident involving the four banks had been in the spotlight earlier last month as some bank customers had earlier claimed authorities had restricted their movements in a bid to stop them from protesting.
On Sunday, protesters held banners and chanted while sitting on the steps to the Chinese central bank in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan.
Local media reports say police were present at the scene and had told protesters to leave.
Shortly afterwards, protesters were then approached by a group of unidentified men - supposedly security personnel - who were dressed in plainclothes.
Videos posted on social media showed these men shoving and pelting protestors.
One protestor, who had travelled specially to Henan, told BBC Chinese that she had saved more than 100,000 yuan in an affected bank, and that some protesters were badly hit.
"A group of people without police uniforms [on] rushed towards us. They hit us hard, especially [the] men," said the protestor, who only wanted to be identified as Ms Wang.
"I saw a man wearing glasses next to me with blood all over his face, from his head to his nose was bleeding, and I was especially scared at that moment."
Later in the day, local police said they were making progress on investigations into the banks, without mentioning the protests.
The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said last month that the major shareholder of the village banks, a company called Henan New Fortune, used third-party platforms or a money broker to take public funds. The company is suspected of financial crimes and authorities are currently investigating.
