A man responsible for spreading rumors that police beat two people to death in a protest in Qidong, Jiangsu province, was detained for 10 days on July 30, according to the local public security bureau.

On the night of July 28, the suspect surnamed Sun posted on the Internet that a 9-year-old girl had been trampled to death in the morning and an 18-year-old college student beaten to death in the afternoon during a protest on Saturday against a water discharge project.

Sun later confessed he made up the rumor.

Thousands of local residents gathered in front of the Qidong government office and in adjacent streets to protest a water pipeline project that would discharge 150,000 metric tons of wastewater a day into one of the city’s ports. Protesters dispersed in the afternoon after the government announced the permanent cancellation of the project.