According to videos verified by AFP, residents of Guangzhou in southern China clashed with law enforcement after a long lockdown, a sign of growing excitement over the zero-Covid health policy.
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Since last month, part of the 18 million people who live in this huge metropolis have been subject to travel restrictions due to the resurgence of the epidemic.
Most of the positive cases are concentrated in Haiju County, home to about 1.8 million people.
On Monday, the authorities decided to extend the curfew till Wednesday evening, in most parts of the district.
Videos uploaded on Monday evening and verified by AFP show hundreds of residents protesting in the streets.
Some people, in small groups, break down large plastic barriers that help control buildings or neighborhoods.
In other footage taken in Haiju district, protesters in all-white protective clothing attack officers.
“We don’t want any more trials!” protestors chanted, some hurling objects at police.
Another video shows a man swimming across the river that separates Haishu from a neighboring district. Passers-by reported that the individual was trying to escape from prison.
Demonstrations in China are less common than in the West and, above all, less publicized.
But social networks have continued to echo scenes of cheering people in the face of an inflexible zero-covid policy in recent months.
The latter in particular consists of imprisonment, travel restrictions and sometimes almost daily PCR tests once a few cases appear.
Many Chinese complain about these unexpected restrictions, in some cases causing food shortages and complicating access to healthcare for the restricted population.
Earlier this month, Chinese authorities apologized after a three-year-old child died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
In a message posted online and later deleted, her father accused her of obstructing him from going to the hospital.
In April, during the Shanghai lockdown, residents confronted police officers who forced them to leave their apartments to isolate people positive for the coronavirus.
