BBC journalist dragged to ground and arrested ‘for filming lockdown protest’ as China sends riot cops to crush dissent
A BBC journalist was dragged to the ground and arrested by several police officers tonight as anti-lockdown protests in China escalated.
Foreign news cameraman Edward Lawrence is thought to have been targeted because he filmed the growing uprising.
Footage shows at least four officers bundling him to the floor in cuffs in Shanghai before picking him up and leading him away.
Another clip shows him being walked away from the protest as he shouted to a friend: “Call the consulate now.”
It is understood that British officials have spoken with Mr Lawrence, who has since been released.
It comes as China tonight deployed riot officers to crush the protests, which began after ten people died in a tower block fire in the city of Urumqi.
READ MORE ON THE PROTESTS
Hundreds have marched in the streets of eight cities after the tragedy was blamed on Xi Jinping’s draconian zero-Covid lockdown.
Many even returned to Shanghai’s streets this evening just hours after police used pepper spray to forcibly remove around 300 from the same spot.
Crowds have been chanting: “Lift lockdown for Urumqi, lift lockdown for Xinjiang, lift lockdown for China!”
And in an unprecedented display of dissidence against the authoritarian regime, a large group shouted: “Down with the Chinese Community Party, down with Xi Jinping. Free Urumqi!”
Most read in The Sun
Human rights organisation Amnesty International said the demonstrators showed “remarkable bravery” on the third day of unrest.
The protests, which have spread to about 50 universities, are said to be the largest anti-government movement in China since Tiananmen Square in 1989.
A large crowd of protesters also gathered outside the Chinese Embassy in London tonight.
The tower block fire on Thursday broke out on the 15th floor and rapidly spread upwards. Nine others were injured in addition to the ten dead.
It had been suggested that tightly-controlled Covid lockdown rules meant many were trapped in the building during the blaze because residents were only allowed out for short periods each day.
Officials deny this. But a fire department fuelled further anger by appearing to blame residents for being unable to “rescue themselves”.
Many Chinese cities have been under strict lockdowns for months.
A large number of residents in Urumqi were unable to leave their homes for any reason since August.
Protesters have also held up blank sheets of paper during a candlelit vigil mourning the tower block victims last night.
Others have held anti-establishment placards and called for democracy and freedom of expression.
One protester in Shanghai said: “We just want our basic human rights. We can’t leave our homes without getting a test. It was the accident in Xinjiang that pushed people too far.
Read More on The Sun
Another said the Covid policy is “a game and not based on science or reality”.
In Beijing, a group chanted: “We don’t want masks, we want freedom.”
