Chinese police kicked and beat a BBC journalist while detaining him for covering the biggest uprising there since the Tiananmen Square protests more than three decades ago.

The British national broadcaster said it was “extremely concerned about the treatment” of Ed Lawrence, whose violent arrest in Shanghai was captured in disturbing videos shared online.

“During his arrest, he was beaten and kicked by the police,” the BBC said of Lawrence, adding he was then “held for several hours before being released.”

Lawrence himself noted a Swiss journalist was briefly detained and “at least one local national was arrested after trying to stop the police from beating me.” 

Cops later confiscated phones and cameras and made people delete images of the protests, the reporter said, recounting disturbing scenes that included a seemingly unconscious man being dragged away. 

The attack on Lawrence “happened while he was working as an accredited journalist,” the BBC said, adding that it was “very worrying that one of our journalists was attacked this way whilst carrying out his duties.”

Chinese officials claimed Lawrence was arrested “for his own good in case he caught COVID from the crowd,” the outlet went on, adding: “We do not consider this a credible explanation.”

The British government joined in the condemnation, with Foreign Secretary James Cleverly calling Lawrence’s treatment “deeply disturbing.”

“Media freedom and freedom to protest must be respected. No country is exempt,” Cleverly tweeted. “Journalists must be able to do their job without intimidation.”

UK Business Secretary Grant Shapps told Sky News that the incident was “a considerable concern.”

“There can be absolutely no excuse whatsoever for a journalist, who was simply covering the protests going on, being beaten by the police,” he said.

On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian gave a fresh excuse, claiming the BBC man “did not identify himself as a journalist and didn’t voluntarily present his press credentials.”

However, other Western journalists who detailed their own harassment by cops said they had immediately shared their press credentials.

Michael Peuker, a reporter for Radio Télévision Suisse, said his ID was not enough to keep him and his cameraman from being briefly detained by officers who swarmed around them as they tried to go live on the air.

He said the police tactic was “revealing of the treatment of foreign journalists in China. Hindrances, intimidation, harassment on the ground have become commonplace.”

The protests erupted across cities in China after at least 10 people were burned alive in an apartment building in Urumqi in the northwestern province of Xinjiang, where some residents have been locked in their homes for four months. Many suggested people trying to escape the blaze were blocked by locked doors or other pandemic restrictions.

The protests represent the biggest popular revolt since the army crushed the student-led pro-democracy movement in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, and the first of its kind since Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago. 

During his tenure, Xi has overseen the quashing of dissent and expansion of a high-tech social surveillance system that has made protest more difficult, and riskier.

Still, some protesters briefly chanted anti-Xi slogans in Shanghai on Sunday, which could be deemed sedition punishable by prison.

In response, police used pepper spray to drive away demonstrators, and dozens were detained and taken away in police vans and buses. 

China’s vast internal security apparatus is also famed for identifying people it considers troublemakers and picking them up later when few are watching.

On Monday, police stepped up their presence in cities where protesters took to the streets over the weekend — including Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan, where COVID first emerged three years ago.

Chinese expats across the world showed solidarity with small-scale vigils and protests reported in London, Paris, Tokyo and Sydney.

However, a foreign ministry spokesman maintained Monday that reports of widespread anger “does not reflect what actually happened.”

“We believe that with the leadership of the Communist Party of China,” Zhao said, “and cooperation and support of the Chinese people, our fight against COVID-19 will be successful.”

With Post wires