Zimbabwe refugees 'ran in terror'

(CNN) -- South African police raided a Johannesburg church early Thursday and took away large numbers of Zimbabwean refugees who had taken shelter there, according to witnesses and video footage.

"They ran in terror," said Bishop Paul Verryn of the Central Methodist Church.

"(The police) then entered the building. They have kicked down doors, they've broken a window, they assaulted people. They manhandled me. I mean, they just treated us as if we're animals."

Central Methodist Church is known to be a haven for refugees fleeing neighboring Zimbabwe, where food shortages and the world's highest rate of inflation have forced many residents to leave.

Many refugees from Zimbabwe have poured into neighboring countries like South Africa, and Verryn's church has become known for sheltering them. The church is often home to hundreds -- even thousands -- and when they find no room inside, the refugees sleep on the street outside.

A police spokesman confirmed the overnight raid and said officers were looking for illegal immigrants.

"Police cordoned off an area and searched the premises, and the church was part of the area that was cordoned off," said Director Govindsamy Mariemuthoo of the Gauteng Police.

Mariemuthoo said any allegations of police misconduct would be investigated.

News footage showed dozens of people crouched or sleeping on the floor of the church, then police leading them out. Police carried at least one person away by all four limbs.

Police put those they detained into police vans, where they asked them for passports and identity documents.

Judy Baisingswaithe, who works with a homeless charity at the church, said she was upset and outraged at word of the raid.

"The fact that they came in the middle of the night, and the manner in which it was done," she told CNN. "Because doors were broken and it didn't have to be that way."

Baisingswaithe said it raised questions about government policies toward refugees and evoked a harsher time in South Africa.

"It just saddened me because it's such a reminder of the old apartheid days." she said. "I thought about how the authorities had always come in the middle of winter to arrest the poorest of the poor." E-mail to a friend

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