27 April 2012 Last updated at 17:30 ET
Chen Guangcheng and Hu Jia appear together in a photo released by Mr Hu's wife Zeng Jinyan
China dissident Chen Guangcheng 'in US embassy'
Chen Guangcheng and Hu Jia appear together in a photo released by Mr Hu's wife Zeng Jinyan
China dissident Chen Guangcheng is in the US embassy in Beijing following his dramatic escape from house arrest, fellow activist Hu Jia has told the BBC.
Mr Hu said Mr Chen - who is blind - had scaled a high wall and was driven hundreds of kilometres to Beijing.
The US state department has refused to comment on the claim.
Mr Chen escaped on Sunday, activists say, and has since released a video addressed to Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.
In it he makes three demands, including that Mr Wen investigate what Mr Chen calls the brutal beating up of his family members.
Since his escape, his brother and nephew have reportedly been detained, along with a supportive activist.
Mr Chen, 40, was placed under house arrest at his home in Dongshigu town, Shandong province, after being released from a four-year jail sentence in 2010.
Reports suggest authorities only realised Mr Chen had escaped on Thursday.
Escape 'long-planned'
Mr Hu - a friend of Mr Chen and himself a prominent activist and dissident - said he had met Chen Guangcheng in the last 72 hours, since Mr Chen's escape.
Mr Hu's wife, from whom he is separated, released a photo of the two men together on Twitter.
Mr Hu told the BBC Mr Chen had "planned this escape for a long time, he even attempted to dig a tunnel to escape".
"That failed and this time he tried not to appear in the daytime to create the impression for the guards that he never appears in the day. So that won him time, a few days, to climb over all the walls. So he planned this for a long time and made sure the guards had no idea."
He said a night-time escape was not a problem for a blind man, but "of course he did fall a few times".
He said he had critical help from "volunteers".
Mr Hu said Mr Chen had fled to the US embassy in Beijing. The US embassy has not commented, and the US state department told reporters in Washington it had "no information" for them.
Other activists have stated simply that Mr Chen is in a "safe place" in Beijing.
Chen demands
In his video addressed to Prime Minister Wen, delivered from a darkened room, Mr Chen said outwitting his guards had not been easy.
In the appeal, posted online by Boxun, a Chinese dissident news website based in the United States, he asks that:
- Prime Minister Wen investigate and prosecute local officials Mr Chen says beat up his family members
- The safety of his family be ensured
- Corruption in general in China be dealt with and punished according to the law
Mr Chen names some local officials who told him that they "do not care about the law" and that "a few hundred people" were hired by the local government to "lock down" the village he lives in.
The Chinese authorities have come under international criticism for their treatment of him. At one point his daughter was barred from school. Many sympathisers who have tried to visit his home say they have been beaten up.
In the video, Mr Chen says: ''I may be free but my worries are for my family… my wife, my child, my mother. Perhaps because of my leaving, they may become the target of more brutal abuse.''
A self-schooled legal activist, Mr Chen is known for revealing rights abuses under China's one-child policy and has accused officials in Shandong province of forcing 7,000 women into abortions or sterilisations.
The plight of Mr Chen has become famous around the world. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has repeatedly called for his release and is due to visit Beijing next week.
Relatives held
The authorities appear to be moving against those believed to have been involved in Mr Chen's escape.
Reports on Friday said local authorities had surrounded the house of Mr Chen's brother, Chen Guangfu, and Guangfu's son, Chen Kegui, also in Dongshigu, near Linyi.
Blogger Yaxue Cao says he spoke to Chen Kegui on Friday at about 01:30 local time (Thursday 17:30 GMT), and he has transcribed the interview on his blog Seeing Red in China.
The transcript suggests that at the time of the interview Chen Guangfu had already been detained.
Chen Kegui was awaiting police arrest, having initially resisted an attempt to detain him by unidentified men less than two hours before by slashing at them with kitchen knives.
"Around midnight, about two hours ago, they entered our property by jumping over the enclosed walls, they pried open the locks and kicked on the doors. I heard my mother crying inside, helplessly: 'Please don't come in! Please don't come in!'"
Chen Kegui, who often sobs during the interview, insists: "I did not take knives to go out to kill anyone. I was defending myself in my own home. They attempted to apprehend me without showing any warrant."
The interview ends with Mr Chen saying: "I don't know whether the police are coming. Perhaps they will send a sniper to kill me. They would accuse me of killing. It's all possible."
Reports on Chen Kegui's current whereabouts were unclear, with activists saying he had been detained but the county government saying he was still at large.
He Peirong, another China-based activist who had also campaigned for Chen Guangcheng, has also been detained at her home in Nanjing according to other activists.
The Chen affair comes at an unwelcome time for China's leaders, who have been embroiled in a lurid political scandal involving disgraced former party boss Bo Xilai.
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