BEATEN BY THE MEN IN WHITE
Triad gangsters blamed for subway attacks on Hong Kong protesters
SECURITY chiefs in Hong Kong were yesterday accused of colluding with gangsters who beat up pro-democracy protesters.
The masked thugs in white T-shirts used bats, steel pipes and bamboo staves to assault demonstrators returning from a march. They wounded at least 45 of them, six seriously.
Footage showed the attackers, who are suspected of being triad gangsters, running into a subway station and on to crowded trains before unleashing a barrage of blows on the marchers. One victim is in a critical condition in hospital and five others were seriously injured.
Footage from Yuen Long station appeared to show a pregnant woman being beaten to the ground as she tried to protect her husband. She is said to be in a stable condition in hospital.
Protesters accused police of conspiring with the attackers, saying it took more than an hour for them to respond.
The attackers were photographed chatting with riot officers moments after the attack and several posted ‘selfies’ online.
Others left the scene in cars with Chinese mainland plates.
Images on social media showed pro-Beijing politician Junius Ho shaking hands with suspected gang members just before the attack and apparently praising the ‘heroes’ for their ‘hard work’.
Lam Cheuk-ting, an opposition politician who needed hospital treatment after he was attacked, said police had ignored
‘Bricks, grenades and petrol bombs’
his calls for help. He added: ‘They deliberately turned a blind eye to these attacks by triads on regular citizens.’
Senior police officers and Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam said the accusations of collusion were unfounded.
Up to 430,000 people had attended the pro-democracy march earlier in the day. Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas and said protesters hurled bricks, smoke grenades and petrol bombs.
Weeks of turmoil, which started over a proposed extradition bill, have prompted fears of a security crackdown in the semiautonomous Chinese territory.
Under the terms of the handover from Britain in 1997, Beijing pledged to keep key liberties such as an independent judiciary and freedom of speech.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said: ‘Actions by some radical demonstrators have affected the bottom line of the “one country, two systems” principle, and that is absolutely intolerable.’