Police detained two Western followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement after they staged a protest in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year today.
Canadian citizen Mr Jason Loftus and US citizen Mr Levi Browde were seized on the plaza after they unfurled a yellow banner accusing Chinese authorities of staging self-immolations by alleged followers of the group on the square a year earlier.
Police arrested Mr Loftus (22) as he shouted "Falun Gong is good!" at the top of his voice into a nearby police van. Mr Browde (29) was led peacefully on board shortly afterwards.
The banner read: "The self-immolations were a fraud. Falun Gong is good".
On the eve of the Lunar New Year last year, five alleged Falun Gong members, including a 12-year-old girl and her mother, set themselves ablaze in the square. The girl and her mother died of their injuries.
Graphic footage of the self-immolations and the perpetrators' horrific burns have been at the core of the government's campaign against Falun Gong, which it outlawed in 1999 and has branded an evil cult.
Falun Gong has denied any involvement in the incident.