Chinese police have detained more than 40 mainly-Western followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement in Beijing - and eyewitness accounts say some of them were mistreated.

Scores of uniformed and plain-clothes police rounded up the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square after they unfurled yellow banners and shouted "Falun Gong is good."

Witnesses say the demonstrators were wrestled to the ground and kicked in the face before being herded into police vans. A reporter with the French News Agency who was on the scene says police officers slapped and shouted obscenities in English at one of the women protesters. Another woman was grabbed by the hair when she began to speak.

Security was extremely tight even before the protest, with Westerners approaching the square being asked to show identification. Earlier this week, China expelled a Canadian and an American Falun Gong follower after they demonstrated on Tiananmen Square against China's crackdown on group. China banned the spiritual movement in July of 1999, branding it an "evil cult."

Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters.

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