According to police, protesters failed to comply with instructions, and continued to protest past an agreed deadline

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Swiss police detained 32 Tibetan and Swiss nationals protesting against a visit by Chinese president Xi Jinping on Sunday, a spokesman has said.

Swiss authorities had given a two-hour time limit to the protest in the centre of Bern to avoid the kind of confrontation that marked the last visit by a Chinese president 18 years ago.

Several people near a security zone set up for the state visit reportedly failed to comply with police instructions. Arrests were made and police also prevented a man from setting himself on fire, before handing him to doctors for treatment.

Fourteen activists were detained near the Swiss parliament building in the afternoon as they continued to protest past the time restriction, waving posters saying “Free Tibet” and “Don’t Deal With Killers”, according to the association of Tibetan Youth in Europe.

“The situation inside Tibet is getting worse day by day. Our people are being oppressed, our people are being imprisoned,” the association’s spokeswoman Mimpara Dhakyel said. “We are really concerned (about) how our government, our own government treats us … doesn’t permit us to demonstrate.”

Swiss police said they made the arrests “to secure safety”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest After arriving, the Chinese president gave a speech to Swiss dignitaries, including president Doris Leuthard (far left). Photograph: ARND WIEGMANN / POOL/EPA

Up to 800 Tibetans and Swiss had gathered in the city centre and protested peacefully against the Tibet policies of China, with most of them leaving before noon as agreed, Tenzin Nyingbu, president of the Tibetan Community in Switzerland & Liechtenstein, told Reuters.

The Chinese leader arrived in the Swiss capital for a gala dinner on Sunday afternoon. After holding talks with Swiss officials on Monday, he will attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday, a first for a Chinese president.

In 1999, demonstrators took to roofs overlooking the Swiss parliament with banners demanding “Free Tibet” during a visit by China’s then-president Jiang Zemin.

Police intervened when people tried to throw eggs at the Chinese delegation. Jiang questioned Swiss leaders’ control over their country and remarked that they risked “losing a good friend”.

China and Switzerland forged a free trade agreement in 2014 and Swiss companies count China among their most important markets.