Rioters in HK Attack Police With Petrol Bombs Over Weekend
Unrest broke out again in China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Sunday as rioters participating in an unauthorised assembly in the Tsim Sha Tsui area attacked Police with petrol bombs and beat up bystanders who tried to photograph their vandalism.
In the afternoon, participants of the unauthorised assembly blocked roads in the vicinity of Salisbury Road junction with Nathan Road, while some violent radicals attacked Police officers with hard objects and umbrellas.
After nightfall, masked rioters continued to gather in the area between Tsim Sha Tsui and Sham Shui Po, inflicting damage to shops and facilities, and hurled petrol bombs at Sham Shui Po Police Station.
A snack chain store on the Nathan Road was stormed in and vandalised by rioters. It was then set on fire by a Molotov cocktail thrown by the rioters.
TV footage showed at least two men being surrounded and beaten up by black-clad and masked rioters in different locations. They fell onto the ground with their faces bleeding during the assaults, while some of the rioters kept kicking their heads. Local TV and news outlets said the two men were attacked when trying to taking photos of the rioters.
Some rioters built barricades with objects such as public light bus stands, bamboo sticks and wooden boards, blocking roads and paralysing traffic extensively. Outside the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) stations in the area, smoke grenades were hurled and fires were set at the exits.
Police repeated warnings
Police officers repeatedly warned the rioters that they were participating in an unauthorised assembly, which constitutes a criminal offence.
After the repeated warnings went futile, Police officers deployed tear gas and other minimum necessary force to carry out dispersal operation, the Hong Kong Police said in an earlier statement.
During the dispersal operations, some rioters hurled petrol bombs at Police officers.
The Police warned all rioters to stop all illegal acts and appealed to bystanders to leave immediately. Since 7pm local time, large batches of masked rioters had erected barricades to block main roads in Kowloon, including Nathan Road, Argyle Street, Cheung Sha Wan Road and Lai Chi Kok Road. A street lamp post was severed and trash used as barricades were set ablaze by rioters, causing traffic to be paralysed, said Police in a follow-up statement published at around 10pm local time. Flocks of rioters wearing masks also inflicted damage to stores and coffee shops in the Yau Tsim Mong area.
They broke into the shops and committed vandalism and arson, while some others wrecked the wooden walls of banks.
Local media reported that a group of about 10 mobsters attempted to force open the door of a Bank of China branch, but were later driven off by officers of the Special Tactical Contingent who arrived in time.
“Masked rioters’ blatant defiance of the law is not to be condoned. The Police are now conducting dispersal and arrest operations,” the Police said in the statement. Due to the unrest, many stores and all facilities of Kowloon Park in Yau Tsim Mong district were closed early to ensure the safety of venue users.
The MTR Corporation announced in the evening that Mong Kok Station and Yau Ma Tei Station, two MTR stations in the area, were closed due to the violence.
The corporation later in a press release strongly condemned “such unlawful acts targeting MRT stations and posing threats to the safety of passengers, staff and the railway system.”
The corporation will assess and repair the damaged facilities and do its best to reduce the impact on the train services for the next day, it said.
Response from Hong Kong
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the HKSAR government in a statement expressed strong condemnation on the illegal behaviours of the rioters who participated in unauthorised assemblies, saying that such acts “seriously undermined social order and jeopardised people’s lives and property.”
“The Police will strictly enforce the law to stop the illegal acts and bring offender to justice to restore public order as soon as possible,” the statement said.