Police interrupted a reporting visit by Rupert Wingfield Hayes of the BBC to the former petitioners village near South Beijing railway station in July. While talking to locals for about half an hour, he could see an informant in a black shirt calling on a mobile phone. Police then came and took down all their details and then left.
While they were talking, however, he saw 30 security guards had been sent around the area to scare off the remaining petitioners and tell them not to talk to him.