Authorities in northeastern China on Sunday ordered a petrochemical plant to be shut down immediately after thousands of people demonstrated, demanding the relocation of the factory.

Demonstrators in the port city of Dalian, in Liaoning province, faced down a wall of police in riot gear in front of the municipal government office. Minor scuffles broke out, although there was no report of injuries among the 12,000 protesters, state news agency Xinhua said.

The authorities also pledged to relocate the Fujia Chemical Plant, Xinhua said, citing a statement from the municipal committee of the Communist Party and the government. The report did not say where the plant is likely to move to.

State media said last Monday that residents in Dalian were forced to flee when a storm battering the northeast Chinese coast whipped up waves that burst through a dyke protecting the Fujia plant, which makes paraxylene (PX), a toxic petrochemical used in polyester. .

Although authorities repaired the dyke and insisted that no spills were detected, the incident sparked panic that PX could have been released, fuelling resentment against the project. Calls on popular microblogging site Weibo and QQ, an instant messaging system, urged residents to protest on Sunday.

Protesters chanted 'Fujia, get out!' Xinhua said, adding that there was no sign of the protest dispersing soon.

The outpouring of public anger is emblematic of the rising discontent facing Chinese leaders, who are obsessed with maintaining stability and struggling to balance growth with growing public anger over pollution and environmental threats.

In a rare concession, Dalian's Communist Party chief Tang Jun and mayor Li Wancai earlier on Sunday 'tried to appease the crowd by promising to move the polluting project out of the city', Xinhua said.

But protesters demanded a clear timetable for moving the plant, with some refusing to move until a timetable is established, Xinhua said.

Protesters including children marched holding banners that declared: 'I love Dalian and reject poison', 'return me my home and garden, get out PX, protect Dalian', and 'Return my future generations' beautiful home', according to eyewitness accounts.

Photographs on Weibo showed a person in a gas mask wearing a T-shirt that said: 'Brother wants to live a few more years'. Xinhua said protesters threw bottles of mineral water at police who tried to cordon off the main road that passes near the square, but relented after police backed down.

'A poster was put on the Internet yesterday calling people to 'stroll' on Sunday morning starting from 10 a.m. on the People's Square, near which the Dalian government is located,' a resident in Dalian, who declined to be named, told Reuters by telephone.

'We know that the typhoon caused some leak of poisonous chemicals from the PX project and we are all worrying about it, because it is a threat to our life,' the resident said. 'We hope that such a 'stroll' may push the government to do something as soon as possible to dispel our worries.'  - Reuters