CHENGDU - Three police officers were wounded after being assaulted by members of an illegal pyramid selling ring at a residential community in southwest China's Sichuan Province, local authorities said late Friday.

The attack happened Friday night when the three police officers were trying to bust a pyramid selling ring in Lizhou District of Guangyuan City, but were allegedly attacked by its members.

"Police officers shot and injured one assaulter after the warning shot had been fired," a government official in Lizhou told Xinhua.

The assaulters tried to snatch the policemen's batons and guns, according to the official. Police detained some suspects at the scene.

A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment primarily for recruiting other people into the scheme, rather than providing any real investment or sale of products to the public.

Pyramid selling is outlawed in China but still operates underground in some less developed regions.