Unrest continues in Guangzhou as lockdown anger grows

People in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou have clashed with police overnight in the latest protest against the country’s strict Covid rules.

Footage online showed police in white hazmat suits clutching riot shields to protect themselves from debris and glass thrown at them by protesters.

Another video showed people being taken away in handcuffs.

On Wednesday city officials said Covid restrictions would be relaxed in several districts.

China has seen record numbers of new cases in recent days.

According to posts on social media, the protests took place late on Tuesday and into the early hours of Wednesday in the district of Haizhu.

One Guangzhou resident said that he saw around 100 police officers converge on Houjiao village in Haizhu and arrest at least three men.

Haizhu was also the scene of angry Covid protests earlier this month.

The latest unrest follows a wave of protest in China over the weekend, triggered by a fire in a high-rise block in the western Xinjiang region that killed 10 people on Thursday. Many Chinese believe long-running Covid restrictions in the city contributed to the deaths, although the authorities deny this.

That prompted people in Shanghai and Beijing and other big cities to take to the streets, demanding an end to strict Covid measures – with some also calling for President Xi Jinping to stand down.

Those protests later ebbed amid heavy a heavy police presence where demonstrations had taken place.

Agencies