Vandalism and tear gas rattle Hong Kong’s New Territories

Violence broke out across the New Territories of Hong Kong on the 24th straight weekend of anti-government protests, with police firing tear gas to break up rallies as black-clad activists blocked roads and trashed shopping malls.

Protesters yesterday vandalised a train station in the central new town of Sha Tin and smashed up a restaurant perceived as being pro-Beijing, just two weeks before planned district council elections, the lowest tier of voting in the Chinese-ruled city.

Now TV showed pictures of a huge red welt on the upper arm of one of its reporters who said she had been hit by a tear gas canister in Tsuen Wan, to the west of the New Territories.

The rail station was closed in Sha Tin, amid scuffles between police and protesters young and old, on a day of planned shopping mall protests throughout the territory. Shopping districts across the harbour on the main island were quiet.

“Radical protesters have been gathering in multiple locations across the territories,” police said in a statement yesterday.

“They have been loitering in several malls and vandalising shops and facilities therein, neglecting the safety of members of the public.”

Protesters daubed graffiti on shop fronts in Kowloon Tong and “stormed” shops in Tsuen Wan, police said.

Last weekend, anti-government protesters crowded into a shopping mall when a man slashed people with a knife and bit off part of a politician’s ear.

The protesters are furious at what they see as police brutality and meddling by Beijing in the former British colony’s freedoms, guaranteed by the “one country, two systems” formula in place since it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

China denies interfering in Hong Kong and has blamed Western countries for stirring up trouble.