Rampaging demonstrators lit fires and lobbed petrol bombs at riot police in another day of chaos and violence in Hong Kong last Saturday.
Anti-government protesters also planned on Sunday afternoon to disrupt all travel routes to Hong Kong airport. They also called on the public to take over road and rail links to the airport on Sunday and Monday to cause flights to be cancelled, as per a report from South China Morning Post.
Last Saturday, police fought back, first firing rounds of blue dye from water cannons, and then sticking to their tested means of dispersal, multiple shots of tear gas, the report said.
Sources also told the Post that police also fired two live rounds into the air to fight off a violent mob near Victoria Park in Causeway Bay.
There were reports that undercover officers are mingling with the demonstrators.
Across various locations, elite “raptors” from the Special Tactical Squad fought back with hard-core protesters and wrestling some of them.
Hard-core elements have gone to extremes by lighting bonfires of cardboard and other flammable material, rubbish bins and any junk they could lay their hands on as they moved from one district to another.
The report added that at night, demonstrators fanned out across the harbour to Kowloon, in a flash mob-style protest in the tourist hub of Tsim Sha Tsui, setting off more fires along the main shopping artery of Nathan Road and its side streets.
Riot police didn’t back down as they charged at the protesters and fired rounds of tear gas. The protesters dispersed only to reappear an hour later farther north in Mong Kok, in even larger numbers.
The MTR also suspended services at several stations throughout the day.
Railway operator was armed with an injunction to shut down operations to prevent protesters from taking cover or using trains to move from one target to the next, the report said.
