Angry tourists shout at guards after Chinese airport goes into lockdown

Lucy Thackray
·2 min read
2

Panicked tourists have captured the moment a regional airport in China went into a lockdown, with angry passengers seen shouting at armed guards.

Xishuangbanna Airport, in China’s Yunnan Province, went into a lockdown on Wednesday morning, with arriving travellers forcibly prevented from leaving the terminal.

The sudden lockdown was due to 61 new Covid cases being reported in the area, said local authorities.

Video shows guards in full hazmat suits with guns and shields being confronted by domestic Chinese tourists, several of whom are seen raising their voices in frustration.

The atmosphere is one of panic and confusion, with multiple air passengers shouting shrilly as they are surrounded by suited-up Covid guards.

“Chinese Covid police officers using machine guns to suppress passengers to stop them leave the Xishuangbanna airport in Yunnan Province today,” wrote a Chinese Twitter account, @Songpinganq, alongside the video.

“Millions of Chinese people are living under martial law now! Every few hundred meters and each intersection , there is a guard carrying a rifle to enforce lockdown,” it claimed in another tweet, posting more video.

According to the Telegraph, holidaymakers in the country also took to social media to complain about the sudden lockdown, with some having paid hundreds to visit the region.

‘I spent 8,000 RMB (£994) for a two-hour tour in Xishuangbanna airport, I am really speechless,’ complained one tourist on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

President Xi Jinping is reportedly keeping a tight lid on Covid cases as a landmark October election approaches in China.

The president has made a “zero Covid” policy central to his re-election campaign, meaning strict lockdowns are ongoing in Chinese cities.

Several Chinese regions have stepped up their Covid measures in recent weeks in a bid to cope with a fresh spike; the country reported 273 new cases on Wednesday.

The same day, residents of the autonomous territory of Xinjiang were banned from leaving the region as cases spiked in the area.

At its main airport, Ürümqi , 97 per cent of departing flights and 95 per cent of arriving flights were cancelled as a result; trains and buses out of the area were also suspended.