Clashes erupted overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday between protesters and police in Guangzhou, southern China, according to witnesses and videos on social media, after several days of uprisings in the country against health restrictions.
Footage shows police dressed in white full body suits and equipped with transparent riot shields, marching in serried ranks down a street in Haizhu district, as glass objects are thrown around them.
In the videos, screams are heard as orange and blue barricades are knocked down on the ground.
People are also seen throwing objects at the police then, on another extract, a dozen individuals, their hands tied, seem to be arrested by the police.
A Guangzhou resident, who only gave his surname - Chen - said he saw about 100 police officers converge on Houjiao village, part of Haizhu district, and arrest at least three men on Tuesday evening.
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The important Chinese security system reacted quickly to put an end to the historic demonstrations which took place this weekend in several cities of the country.
The anger had erupted after nearly three years of anti-Covid restrictions, which in China involve repeated confinements and almost daily PCR tests of the population.
The trigger for this mobilization, on an unprecedented scale since the pro-democracy demonstrations of 1989, was the fire in a residential building in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region (Northwest), which caused 10 deaths.
Internet users have accused the health restrictions in the city of having prevented the rapid arrival of help, an argument swept away by the authorities.
Guangzhou's Haizhu district, home to more than 1.8 million people, is the epicenter of a new outbreak of Covid-19 cases and has been under lockdown since late October.