China joins row over tourists’ complaint of ill-treatment by Swedish police after hostel booking confusion

An incident involving a family of Chinese tourists who were refused permission to wait in the lobby of a Swedish hostel after arriving a day early has escalated into a diplomatic incident after the Chinese embassy in Stockholm issued a complaint to the local authorities.

The people at the centre of the dispute – a man and his parents – arrived at the Generator Stockholm hostel just after midnight on September 2, according to the son’s post on WeChat, the Chinese instant messaging platform.