A railway passenger will be detained for 11 days for beating a policeman and a security staffer who asked him not to bring a large bottle of hair gel onto the train, Shanghai police said on Tuesday.

The incident took place at Shanghai Railway Station about 6:45pm on Monday.

The passenger, a man surnamed Ma, was found to be carrying 500ml of hair gel in his backpack when his luggage was scanned at the northern entrance to the station.

In China, railway passengers are not allowed to bring over 120ml of hair gel onto the train because of its flammable nature.

When a security staffer told him that he couldn't take the hair gel on the train, Ma hit her in the face with the bottle, police said.

A police officer from the Shanghai Railway Station Police Station was summoned to the scene, but Ma punched him on the nose.

Ma was soon subdued and the security staffer and police officer received bruises to the face, police confirmed.

The man has apologized and said he will make sure to respect railway security rules in the future. He is from Fuxin City, Liaoning Province.

Shanghai railway police said they encounter a handful of passengers who are ill-tempered toward railway security staff every day, especially during morning peak hours, but few will “vehemently decline” to turn in banned objects.

Police said most of the “uncooperative” passengers turn out to be well-educated young people with high salaries.

Police want to stress to the public that more than 20ml of nail polish or hair dye, and more than 120ml of hair gel or mousse cannot be taken onto trains.