Violence erupts in China as people try to leave COVID-19-hit Hubei after lockdown relaxed

BEIJING: Incidents of violent clashes erupting in the Chinese mainland have been reported as people in huge crowds, jamming buses and trains, are trying the leave the central province of Hubei — centre of the coronavirus outbreak — days after Beijing relaxed the two-month lockdown.

Canadian media outlet, The Globe and Mail, citing several videos posted on Chinese social media, reported on Friday that similar clashes took place on a bridge that links the Hubei province with the neighbouring Jiangxi province.

The online videos also showed police vehicles being overturned and police scuffled with each other amid large crowds of people shouting for opening the blockade.

The confrontation came after a line of uniformed officers behind riot shields, positioned across the bridge and blocked entry to people from Hubei into Jiangxi, local media reported.

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The clashes took place between 3 pm and 6 pm, a worker at a toll booth on the bridge told The Globe and Mail in an interview on Friday evening.

“It was on the middle of the bridge somewhere that the