Beijing, China - Two American theology students were arrested and roughed up along with dozens of Chinese Christians in central China last week, a US-based religious watchdog said.
They were about to worship with 41 underground house church pastors and Christians in the town of Lutou in Hubei province on August 2 when 30 plain-clothes police stormed the house and arrested them, said China Aid Association.
The two students, believed to be from Westminster Theological Seminary campuses in Texas and California, were handled roughly and handcuffed. They were prevented from contacting the US embassy, it said.
The pair were released after a seven-hour interrogation and some of their belongings, including their Bibles, notebooks and religious books were confiscated, it said.
An officer at the Lutou town police station, who refused to give his name, confirmed their detention.
'They were detained that morning but they were released in the afternoon,' he told Agence France-Presse, without elaborating.
The US embassy in Beijing could not immediately be reached.
The 41 worshippers from the evangelical South China Church were detained at a detention centre in Zaoyang city. Thirty have since been released but 11 remain in custody, said the aid group.
An officer at the Zaoyang City Number Two Detention Centre told AFP that the Christians were arrested for 'illegal evangelism' and confirmed that some were still being held.