Sky Gidge, Zhang Qian

skygidge@icloud.com

AN early morning police raid on a party resulted in hundreds of both foreigners and Chinese being held before being tested for drug use early yesterday. The party was being held in a public tunnel next to Shenzhen’s Ikea in Nanshan District.

Some people who did not test positive for drugs have been released. It’s unclear what is happening to those that tested positive for recent drug use.

Foreign nationals and Chinese — numbering about 300 according to multiple eyewitnesses — were loaded onto buses and brought to different police stations where their urine was tested for drugs.

“They made sure it was my pee, by literally looking at me do it,” said an American, who asked not to be identified. He was released by police around 11 a.m. yesterday.

After the urine test, those who tested positive for drug use were separate from those who tested negative.

The American described the raid around 4 a.m. as sudden, saying everyone was ordered onto the ground and treated “like a prisoner of war.”

“It was like a stampede. My friend almost got run over. If it was more people someone could have definitely got hurt,” he said, describing shield- and baton-wielding police blocking both exits of the tunnel and sparking panic.

Raids also reportedly took place in Shekou.

A person who answered the phone at the Nanshan District Public Security Sub-bureau confirmed the raids had happened and that they had been planned for “quite a bit of time.” He called the raids a “special operation by the municipal bureau.”

No more details about the raids were disclosed by authorities.

A Futian District policeman said the deaths of two expats in December last year in Futian might have been caused by drugs, but no official statement has been released by the police department.

The tunnel next to the Ikea has been home to parties every few months for about two years, with well-known DJs performing and the events being advertised openly. A popular DJ from Hong Kong was scheduled to perform at the party according to the event’s WeChat advertisement.

“I feel like this is a way to send a signal to the expat community,” the American said.