Protesters and police staged clashes yesterday in Hong Kong during a protest in support of the Uyghurs in China.

Police arrested two people who were demonstrating and trying to burn a Chinese flag during the protest, which was attended by hundreds of people.

Some of them held banners with the white and blue flag of the independence movement in the Xinjiang territory in northwestern China.

Beijing is accused of massive repression against the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, where there are reports that there are millions of detainees in camps under prison conditions.

Chinese diplomats say their country has no political prisoners and insist that the centres provide vocational education as a bulwark against religious extremism.

Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese territory, has lived through a democracy movement for the past six months, and many protesters have found a common cause with human rights movements in other parts of China and the world.