According to Sing Tao Daily, the government sent in large numbers of armed police, who called for an end to the violent protests, began driving the protesters away and detaining several over-reacting protesters.

In March, soldiers subjected detained female protesters to humiliating tests to determine if they were virgins.

On 9 March 2011, military police violently dispersed a sit-in in Tahrir square and detained protesters who were later moved to the Egyptian Museum and tortured.

The police officers detained several protesters and spectators, and tried to destroy all record of the event.

But in 2004, she used the 24-hour guideline as the basis for a suit against the city, charging that it was illegally detaining protesters at the Republican National Convention.

When authorities broke up the crowd, they detained several protesters, many of whom admitted that they were paid off to gather in the Bishkek square.

Police Sgt Pete Simpson said officers began detaining protesters around 8.30pm, after the park was closed half an hour early.

They are reportedly told that the order to break up the crowd and detain protesters came from central authorities in Beijing, and that further appeals should be directed at Beijing.

Pierre Vivoni, Puerto Rico's superintendent of police, said he would investigate whether the police had used excessive force in detaining protesters.

They will oversee Syria's compliance with the Arab League initiative, which calls for attacks to stop, troops to withdraw from the streets and detained protesters to be freed.