Violence flares at weekend protest in Hong Kong

HONGKONG: Police fired chemicallaced blue water and tear gas at protesters who lobbed Molotov cocktails outside the Hong Kong government office complex on Sunday, as violence flared anew after thousands of pro-democracy supporters marched through downtown in defiance of a police ban.

A mixed crowd of hardcore protesters in black and wearing masks, along with families with children, spilled into the roads of the Causeway Bay shopping belt and marched for over 2 km to the central business district. Some waved US and British flags, while others carried posters reiterating t heir calls f or democratic reforms. Police had turned down a request by the Civil Human Rights Front to hold the march, but the demonstrators were undeterred, as they have been all summer.

The march disrupted traffic, and many shops, including the Sogo department store in Causeway Bay, one of Hong Kong’s largest department stores, closed their doors.

Protesters burned Chinese flags and tore down banners congratulating China’s ruling Communist Party, which will celebrate its 70th year in power on October 1.

In familiar scenes, some protesters smashed glass windows and surveillance cameras at a subway station exit.

Hundreds of protesters later targeted the government office complex, throwing bricks and petrol bombs through police barriers. Police responded by firing volleys of tear gas and using water cannon trucks to spray chemical-laced water as well as blue liquid that helped them identify offenders, in a repeat of confrontational scenes from the last several weeks of the protests.

Protesters retreated but regrouped in the nearby Wan Chai neighbourhood, setting a fire outside a subway station exit and on the streets. They fled again after riot police advanced.

Police had earlier warned in a statement that the assembly was illegal and urged protesters to “stop their illegal acts”.

The protests were triggered in June by an extradition bill that many saw as an example of China’s increasing intrusion and at chipping away at Hong Kong residents’ freedoms and rights, many of which are not accorded to people in mainland China.

Hong Kong’s government promised this month to withdraw the bill, which would have allowed some criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial, but protesters have widened their demands to include direct elections for the city’s leaders and police accountability.

More than 1,300 people have been arrested amid increasing clashes between protesters and police, who demonstrators have accused of abuses.

The unrest has battered Hong Kong’s economy, which was a l r e a dy r e e l i ng from t he Us-china trade war.