Chaos on streets as protesters defy rally ban

HONG KONG: Riot police respond with tear gas as firebombs thrown

Hong Kong’s streets have descended into chaos again as protesters set up roadblocks and torched businesses on a main tourist street and police responded with tear gas and a water cannon after an unauthorised pro-democracy rally.

Protesters threw firebombs and took their anger out on shops with mainland Chinese ties as they skirmished late into the evening with riot police, who unleashed numerous tear gas rounds, angering residents and passersby.

Police had beefed up security measures ahead of the rally, for which they refused to give permission, the latest chapter in the unrest that has disrupted life in the financial hub since early June.

More than 20 people were hurt and treated in hospital, including six with serious injuries, the Hospital Authority said. Police did not give an arrest figure.

As the march set off, protest leaders carried a black banner that read “Five main demands, not one less”, as they pressed their calls for police accountability and political rights in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

Supporters sang the protest movement’s anthem, waved colonial and US flags, and held up placards depicting the Chinese flag as a Nazi swastika.

Many protesters wore masks in defiance of a recently introduced ban on face coverings at public gatherings, and handed more out to the crowd.

Some frontline protesters barricaded streets at multiple locations in Kowloon.