Shocking footage of police officers in China wearing hazmat suits has emerged showing the cops clashing with residents over Covid lockdown measures.
The cops in Shanghai can be heard ordering residents outside of a housing complex in the video. Screaming and shouting can also be heard in the background of the footage.
Currently the city is struggling, reporting over 20,000 new coronavirus cases a day for the last 10 days. April 14 saw 27,719 cases.
Most of the 25 million people living in the city are trapped at home due to its zero-tolerance Covid lockdown policies.
A man is led away with force by officers with his arms raised in the air like he is surrendering, reports the Sun.
“This is Shanghai. The police stormed the compound and dragged regular residents out," says a voice in the video.
It has been reported by the South China Morning Post that the flats at Zhangjiang Nashi will be used as a quarantine location during the lockdown.
Residents at the apartments were told yesterday (Thursday, April 14) that they would have to leave so Covid patients could stay there.
“Why did you take the elderly people? Release the elderly people," says a voice.
As one man is being led away, a woman can be heard screaming: “I beg you please. I beg you.”
Tenants tried to stage a protest but the cops dragged people off.
This comes after the strict Covid lockdown is being blamed for the death of a heath worker in the city.
A cadre in Shanghai's Hongkou District Health Commission, 55-year-old Qian Wenxiong, died on Tuesday, as a statement on its Weibo account reveals and according to the South China Morning Post.
There has not been any official confirmation, but some speculating online say he may have taken his own life because of the "unbearable pressure" on the Covid frontline.
Police, however, have denied that Qian has taken his own life.
Phone conversations have also been shared online in videos, with officials sharing how exhausting it is constantly upholding the very strict measures.
They are expected, for instance, to do mass testing across the city and relocate people testing positive to makeshift hospitals that have only just gone up in the last few weeks.
Many hospitals have also been closed or greatly restricted for any non-Covid patients. This has reportedly led to people dying because of delayed treatment for other illnesses, and generally higher mortality rates for elderly and ill people.
The South China Morning Post has also previously reported how a nurse died after an asthma attack when she was turned away for help from the hospital she worked at.
It has also previously emerged that babies in hospital who test positive for Covid have to be segregated, even from their parents.
China's Covid rules state anyone who has the virus must be kept away from those who don't have it.
Diplomats in 30 countries have also written to the Chinese foreign ministry saying the brutal policy must end.
