Onlookers click photos as US vacates Chengdu consulate in China

People take pictures as they gather outside the US Consulate in Chengdu. Pic/AFP

Moving trucks and vehicles with diplomatic plates pulled out of a US Consulate in southwest China on Sunday, as its impending closure over rising bilateral tensions drew a steady stream of onlookers for the second straight day.

People stopped to take selfies and photos, jamming a sidewalk busy with shoppers and families with strollers on a sunny day in Chengdu. A little boy posed with a small Chinese flag before plainclothes police shooed him away as foreign media cameras zoomed in.

Police had shut the street and sidewalk in front of the consulate and set up barriers along the sidewalk on the other side of the tree-lined road.

Earlier, a bus left the consulate and what appeared to be embassy staff spoke with police before retreating back behind the property's solid black gates. It wasn't clear who or what was on the bus.

Three medium-size trucks arrived and left a few hours later, and cars with diplomatic plates departed in between. China ordered the closing of the Chengdu consulate in retaliation for a US order to close the Chinese Consulate in Houston.

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