A Japanese brother and sister and the woman’s 5-year-old boy were heckled and roughed up by Chinese nationals when they unfurled a Tibetan flag before the start of the heavily guarded relay in downtown Kuala Lumpur.

Police detained the Japanese but released them without charges after about six hours. The Chinese were not detained.

At one point in the relay a Western man wearing a T-shirt reading “Beijing Torches Human Rights” rushed forward shouting “Shame, shame, shame.” He was hustled away by police but not arrested.

A British woman wearing a “Free Tibet” T-shirt and a foreign Buddhist monk were also detained and released after a few hours.

Criticism of China’s human rights record has turned the Olympic torch run into one of the most contentious in recent history.

Protests dogged the relay during its stops in Paris, London, Athens and San Francisco, with demonstrators protesting China’s crackdown on anti-government riots in Tibet.

Security concerns have forced authorities in Indonesia, Australia and Japan — the torch’s upcoming stops — to change or shorten their routes.

The only serious incident marring the 16 kilometer (10-mile) run in Malaysia involved the Japanese family, whom hundreds of Chinese nationals confronted at Independence Square where the relay began.

Some Chinese hit the Japanese with inflated plastic batons that were intended for banging together in noisy celebration.

Some of the Chinese shouted “Taiwan and Tibet belong to China” during the melee but no one was hurt.

The Chinese — many wearing red — carried their country’s flag and waved banners that read: “The torch will spread around the world,” and “No one can split China.”

Kuala Lumpur police Chief Muhammad Sabtu Osman said the Japanese unfurled a Tibetan flag and a banner that read “Free Tibet” and were taken to a police station “only for documentation.”

They told reporters they were residents of Malaysia, but did not make further comments.

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