FOREIGN Office officials were last night still trying to discover the fate of a North-East man seized by Chinese police.

Thomas Dobson, who is believed to come from Barnard Castle, County Durham, was bundled into a police van in the former Portuguese colony of Macau earlier this week.

He and other followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement were said to have been involved in a demonstration coinciding with a visit by Chinese president Jiang Zemin to mark the first anniversary of Chinese rule in Macau.

There have been warnings from Falun Gong that some followers of the movement had previously been tortured by the Chinese.

But the Foreign Office was still unable to confirm the man's whereabouts yesterday.

A spokesman said the Foreign Office had asked for information from its staff in China but had not received an answer.

He said that consular officials in China would expect to be notified if a British national was in police custody, and would seek access to check on their welfare.

A spokesman for the security police in Macau said people were detained because they broke the law banning visitors from demonstrating.

Only Macau residents are allowed to protest, and only then if they follow legal procedures.

The spokesman said police were not targeting Falun Gong because they did not know what it was.