China says foreigners held over 'terrorist' materials
Beijing
A Chinese official said on Thursday that a group of foreigners had been detained for distributing "terrorist" materials after a South African charity said nine were being held.
Gift of the Givers, a humanitarian relief organisation based in South Africa, said five of the detainees were South Africans, three British and one Indian.
They were among a total of 20 visitors held on Friday at Ordos airport in China's Inner Mongolia region, it said, adding none had been charged.
"Foreign tourists have been detained by the police here, I heard they looked at and propagated something about violence and terrorism," Zhang Xi, an official at Ordos's foreign affairs office, told AFP Thursday.
Local police declined to comment on the case.
The nine still held are at a detention centre, Gift of the Givers said in a statement.
"The Chinese have been very vague saying that someone in the group has some links to a suspected terror group and that someone has some links to a banned group and that the real reason for the incarceration is that someone was watching propaganda videos in the hotel," it said.
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