Western embassies issue safety alerts in Beijing

The embassy has urged American nationals and government personnel in the area to exercise “heightened vigilance”.

Armed law enforcement officials could be seen standing on guard in the area, which is occupied with various big-name retail outlets and embassies.

The British and French embassies in the capital city have also issued similar warnings, urging their citizens to keep away from Sanlitun.

Word of possible danger reached the U.S., British, Irish and French embassies for possible trouble on or around Christmas Day as Beijing police issued a security alert for the holiday period.

No further details were given about the nature of the threat or where the information came from.

“Yang Shu, a counter-terror expert at Lanzhou University in northwest China, said that the threat’s high profile and focus on Westerners could mark a first for Beijing”.

Beijing police also announced Thursday that they had issued a yellow security alert to ensure safety during the Christmas period.

The BBC adds armed police were deployed Thursday outside shopping malls in Sanlitun.

Dozens of extra police officers, some toting rifles, appeared on Christmas Eve on the streets of the popular Sanlitun section of the city. “A yellow alert is issued when authorities have information about a significant and approaching threat to public security, state media said”, according to Agence France-Presse.

China is struggling with its own domestic terrorism problem in the northwestern region Xinjiang, where violent clashes between ethnic Uighurs – a predominantly Muslim minority group – and majority Han Chinese have become more common in recent years.

“Although foreigners haven’t been specifically targeted, attacks could occur in places visited by foreigners”.