Chinese students hold principal hostage for 30 hours during protests
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The Chinese students held the 55-year-old principal hostage on the campus for more than 30 hours and refused to release him
In a rare protest in China, students of a university help a school principal hostage during a protest about the devaluation of degrees.
The Chinese students were protesting against a proposal to merge a Nanjing college in Jiangsu province with a vocational institute. In China, vocational institutes are assumed to be less prestigious institutions.
In the protest, the undergraduate students of the Nanjing Normal University's Zhongbei College in Jiangsu province came together on Sunday and held the 55-year-old principal hostage on the campus for more than 30 hours.
These students allegedly "shouted verbal abuse and blocked law enforcement" efforts. They also refused to let him leave, even though the police officials gave in to the demands and announced the dismissal of the merger plans, the police stated.
While the police claimed it to be a massive hostage situation and accused the students of being violent, the Chinese students took to social media to show proof of the violence against them by the police.
In videos circulating online, police officers can be seen using batons and pepper spray on students, and they can also be seen dragging individuals from the crowd and beating them. Some photographs also showed a female student bleeding from the head after being beaten up by the police officers.
All the videos and pictures were immediately taken off the internet by authorities and all related hashtags were blocked.