Teargas and water cannons fired on Hong Kong protesters
Hong Kong protesters have trashed a tourist hotspot using petrol bombs, leading police to fire tear gas and water cannons.
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Hong Kong police fired water cannon and tear gas as crowds held an illegal march, with hardcore protesters throwing petrol bombs and trashing businesses to cap a week of anger after recent attacks on pro-democracy demonstrators.
Authorities had forbidden the rally in Tsim Sha Tsui, a densely-packed shopping district filled with luxury boutiques and hotels, citing public safety and previous violence from hardcore protesters.
But tens of thousands nevertheless joined the unsanctioned demo on Sunday (local time), showing the movement can still keep pressure on the city’s pro-Beijing leaders after nearly five months of protests and political unrest.
In a familiar pattern, the huge rally began peacefully.
But it soon descended into chaos as smaller groups of protesters hurled petrol bombs at police, subway entrances and at Chinese mainland bank branches, and vandalised multiple shops.
Police responded with volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets, and baton charges.
Throughout the afternoon, a water cannon truck chased protesters down Nathan Road, one of the city’s busiest shopping thoroughfares, leaving it streaked with blue dye.
The dye in the water, used to identify protesters, also contains a painful pepper solution.
The entrance to the city’s largest mosque was bathed in blue when the water cannon blasted a handful of people outside the building.
Police said hitting the mosque was an accident.
As the protesters fled, frontliners stayed behind to slow the advance of riot police, setting fire to makeshift barricades. Clashes went on deep into the night.
A Xiaomi and a Best Mart store — both mainland Chinese businesses — were set alight.
Tensions were running high after the leader of the group organising the weekend rally, Jimmy Sham, was hospitalised after being attacked by unknown assailants wielding hammers earlier in the week.
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Then late Saturday, a man handing out pro-democracy flyers was stabbed in the neck and stomach, reportedly by an assailant who shouted pro-Beijing slogans.
Many said they wanted to show they were unbowed by the attacks and moves by authorities to ban public gatherings.
“The more they suppress, the more we resist,” a 69-year-old demonstrator, who gave her surname as Yeung, told AFP.
“Can police arrest us all, tens of thousands of people?” Philip Tsoi, a self-described frontline protester, said they needed to keep getting numbers out even though many hardcore activists like him had been “arrested or wounded” in recent weeks.
“What I want is a truly democratic government whose leader is elected by Hong Kong people instead of selected by a Communist regime,” he told AFP.
Vigilante violence has mounted on both sides of the ideological divide.
In recent weeks pro-democracy supporters have badly beaten people who vocally disagree with them — although those fights tend to be spontaneous outbursts of mob anger during protests.
In contrast, pro-democracy figures have been attacked in a noticeably more targeted way, with at least eight prominent government critics, including politicians, beaten by unknown assailants since mid-August.
Protesters have labelled the attacks “white terror” and accused the city’s shadowy organised crime groups of forming an alliance with Beijing supporters.
Beijing has denounced the protests as a foreign-backed plot and condemned attacks on those voicing support for China.
But it has remained largely silent on the attacks carried out against pro-democracy figures.
Originally published as Teargas and water cannons fired on Hong Kong protesters