Beijing ? A local Communist Party official and 26 other people were being tried on charges of organizing a bloody attack on protesting villagers that killed six people in June, the government said Friday.

The announcement of the trial came as the government tried to defuse public anger over a separate clash last week in which police opened fire on protesters in a southern village northeast of Hong Kong, killing at least three.

The government has detained the commander of the forces that fired on the demonstrators.

In the June conflict in Hebei province near Beijing, as many as 300 men with knives and guns attacked villagers protesting the seizure of land for construction of a power plant.

Dozens of people were injured and more than 100 people were detained.