British tourists arrested in China for 'watching terrorist videos'

China has arrested a group of foreign nationals, including nine Britons, on suspicion of having links to terrorism groups.

South African and Indian nationals were also among the 20 people detained in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, last week for watching "terrorist videos" in their hotel rooms.

Six of the British travellers have been deported and are expected to arrive in the country later today, but three remain in jail.

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"These people are suspected of watching and spreading violent terrorist videos and were arrested last Friday," a Chinese official said.

The Foreign Office has demanded an explanation for their detention, the BBC reports.

The detainees include Hoosain Ismail Jacobs, a 74-year-old former anti-apartheid activist who had lived in exile in Britain for more than 25 years, The Guardian reports.

Gift of the Givers, a South African humanitarian relief organisation campaigning to secure their release, said none of the people had been charged.

In a statement on its Facebook page, the charity said: "No reasons were given for the arrest; cell phones were confiscated, there was no access to the embassies of origin nor to their families."

The organisation's Imtiaz Sooliman said the videos were likely to be of Islamic prayers. "This is the month of Ramadan and the South Africans were likely watching videos of Islamic prayers as many of us do in the evenings," he told South Africa’s Independent Online website.