While the authorities pursue their leads, frightened residents are apparently arming themselves.

But in the face of a vicious rape, the frightened residents of 12 East 86th Street said the numbers offered little comfort.

Criminal gangs either lived or robbed there, sometimes who slipped through apartment doors "cracked barely open by frightened residents."

Three times, they woke up frightened residents in their nightclothes who protested their innocence.

The town's frightened residents had already fled.

The miscommunications that followed, and the pell-mell flight by frightened residents, illustrated the need for better preparations.

"Every day it gets worse," said one resident, too frightened to give her name.

Other Chinese news organizations reported that stampedes of frightened residents had caused injuries.

They worked their way through the building, at times crawling on the floor, to escort frightened and disoriented residents from the building.

Thousands of frightened residents fled, joining refugees from nationwide repression and innumerable other battles throughout the country.