Six employees of a seniors home that the government wants to knock down have been taken away and held by police.

About 50 police and public security officials descended on the Shanghai Minsheng Home for the Elderly on Saturday afternoon.

"They distributed leaflets claiming our home is running illegally and asking the elderly to move to other seniors homes," said the home's director Zhang Minsheng.

"Then some of them came in and took away six employees, one woman and five men, by force," he said.

The home is the only building standing in the middle of a region that has been razed and slated for redevelopment.

One of the staff was released around midnight, and the woman, Xing Yaju, has been detained for instigating troubles, according to a detention warrant.

The remaining four are still being held without a warrant, according to Zhang Ting, an employee of the home.

Jiang Bin, 45, the staff member who was released, said about five people held onto his neck and arms and escorted him to a van on Saturday afternoon.

"I was photographed from the front, back and two sides. It was a scene I had only seen in the movies and I was so scared," he said.

"At the station, they kept asking me if I was involved in a clash between staff and auxiliary police on Sept 5," he said.

Police and staff clashed that day as police tried to distribute leaflets to residents telling them to find new residences. Zhang sent staff to film them.

Hu Changchun, vice-director of the district justice bureau and also in charge of the relocation talks, declined to comment. Police at the station also declined comment on the arrests.

The home has 306 residents aged from 50 to 100.

In October last year, the Zhabei district government announced a plan to acquire a 75,000-sq-m piece of land, which also included the seniors home.

In 1993, Zhang signed a 30-year lease on the property. In October, a district court said the land was collectively owned by the villagers and could not be rented, making the contract illegal.

It ordered the home to move in 30 days and Zhang to be compensated 6 million yuan ($878,000). But Zhang said the sum is way too low compared to prices in the market.