Police detain two people at Shanghai protest site: AFP

SHANGHAI

Chinese police detained two people on Monday at a site in Shanghai where demonstrators gathered over the weekend to protest Covid-19 lockdowns and call for greater political freedoms, an AFP journalist witnessed.

When asked why one of the people was taken away, a policeman told AFP "because he didn't obey our arrangements" and then referred the reporter to police.

Police were also pulling people aside and ordering them to delete photos from their phones. Large crowds had gathered Sunday in the downtown area, with police clashing with protesters as they tried to stop groups from converging at Wulumuqi street, named after the Mandarin for Urumqi.

AFP journalists saw several people detained on Sunday evening, and multiple witnesses saw people taken away in earlier protests too.

Shanghai police had not responded on Monday to repeated enquiries about how many people had been detained.

Roads that were closed Sunday night after the protests had been reopened in the morning.

The police presence had decreased, but the streets were covered with blue barriers which AFP witnessed being erected overnight. AFP saw one man who took a picture of the Wulumuqi street sign having a protracted discussion with a police officer.