The head of Amnesty International in Britain and the daughter of a Chinese dissident were shoved off the step of the Chinese embassy in London on Wednesday after they laid a bouquet to mark the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
An official angrily emerged from the embassy and pushed away Amnesty's Kate Allen and Ti-Anna Wang, whose father is imprisoned in China, before throwing the red roses after them, in scenes captured by the BBC.
A British policeman on guard outside the building saw the angry scenes, but took no action, and later instructed that the bouquet be left outside.
The protesters said the flowers symbolised the blood spilled on June 3-4, 1985, when hundreds of unarmed civilians, and more than 1000, by some estimates, were killed when the army crushed months of peaceful protests by students who were demanding political reform.
Speaking afterwards, Allen said: "One of the embassy officials shoved both of us very forcefully in the back so that we both flew into the journalists and photographers standing behind us.
"It was a really hard, physical shove. It felt quite violent and quite shocking."
Wang, 25, the daughter of activist Wang Bingzhang, said: "I think he yelled out 'You can't do this' and 'It's against the law'... and then he told us to get out.
"I was just shocked and really upset that he would do something like this and seems like he'll get away with it."
An Amnesty International spokeswoman said the incident would be reported to police.
