Protesters clash with the police
Hong Kong riot police fired teargas and pepper spray on thousands of protesters who marched in the town of Yuen Long to condemn an attack by suspected gang members on commuters last weekend.
Almost 300,000 protesters and residents had descended on Yuen Long on Saturday afternoon, defying a police ban. They marched to the mass transit station where masked men in white T-shirts had chased and beaten passengers on Sunday.
By the evening, the peaceful march turned tense as demonstrators pushed close to villages surrounding the town, where some of the triads believed to be behind the attack are based. Police shouted warnings through loudhailers telling people they were involved in illegal gatherings and ordering them to leave immediately. After hours of standoffs near two of the villages, police fired volleys of teargas at protesters who tossed the canisters back.
Protesters in black T-shirts and hard hats holding home-made wooden shields marched down the main road in Yuen Long when police fired pepper spray before shooting several more rounds of teargas at them, prompting protesters to throw umbrellas and water bottles in return. Demonstrators dismantled roadside barriers and built makeshift barricades between them and the police.
The protesters had said they would leave together at 7.30pm to avoid any clashes in the evening with triads or residents from the villages. But as news spread that police had deployed a special tactical squad to clear the streets and demonstrators saw reinforcements arriving, hemming them in, they began to leave in panicked droves.
“I want everyone to be safe and to go home,” said Andy, 22, a demonstrator who was ushering people toward the trains. “This is a long-term movement and we already have less and less people who can be on the frontlines. We don’t want people to get arrested or hurt.”
Hundreds of protesters remained and continued to face off with the police late into the night, regrouping in the Yuen Long train station and along the main road. A special tactical unit rushed into the train station where protesters had gathered, using pepper spray and beating some with batons. At least one protester was pressed on to the ground and was bleeding. Blood could seen on the floor in the station lobby.
A group smashed the windows of a Lexus near the train station after spotting wooden rods similar to those used against passengers on last Sunday, leaving fliers criticising the police on the bonnet.
The police issued a statement late on Saturday appealing to protesters to leave Yuen Long as soon as possible. “Police warn that protestors may be arrested if they refuse to leave,” the statement said, adding that demonstrators were participating in an “unauthorised assembly” and may punished with up to five years in prison.
The protests and clashes, among the most chaotic of the last seven weeks, raise the stakes of an ongoing standoff between demonstrators and authorities.
Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous region of China, is facing its worst political crisis in decades. The protests, which began over a controversial extradition bill, have evolved to take on other demands including a police inquiry into the violence in Yuen Long last week. Residents, activists and opposition lawmakers have accused the government and police of colluding with the triads in an attempt to suppress protests, a charge vehemently denied by the Hong Kong leader, Carrie Lam.
Those attending the rally on Saturday, which turned the town of Yuen Long into a sea of umbrellas as marchers shielded themselves from the sun, said they were not there for any political demands, but to speak out against violence.
“It’s not so much about democracy as it is about trust,” said Fong, 30. “If every Hongkonger chooses to stay at home then we will surely die … This is the way Hongkongers show their trust to each other, by showing up and standing up for each other.” (The Guardian UK)
