SHANGHAI: Protests simmered in Shanghai on November 27 as residents in several Chinese cities, angered by a deadly fire in the country's far west, pushed back against heavy COVID 19 curbs nearly three years into the epidemic.
A fire on Thursday that killed 10 people in a high-rise building in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, has caused widespread public anger as many Internet users believe that residents could not escape in time because the building was partially locked down, which city officials denied.
On Saturday night in Shanghai, China's most populous city and financial hub, residents gathered at the city's Wulumuqi Road - which borrows its name from Urumqi - for a vigil that turned into a protest in the early hours of Sunday.
The crowds in Shanghai shouted on the video that lifts lockdown for Urumqi, lift lockdown for Xinjiang, lift lockdown for all of China, and lift lockdown for Urumqi.
At one point, a large group began shouting: Down with the Chinese Communist Party, down with Xi Jinping, free Urumqi, in a rare public protest against the Chinese leadership.
A large group of police tried to break up the crowd.