230 arrested in crackdown on demonstrators

HONG KONG — At least 230 people were arrested during antigovernment protests in Hong Kong, police said, as authorities seek to prevent a resurgence of last year’s massive demonstrations.

Demonstrators between the ages of 12 and 65 were arrested late Sunday on a range of charges, including unlawful assembly, police said in a statement.

Another 19 people were ticketed for having violated the Prevention and Control of Disease Regulation, which prohibits gatherings of more than eight people as part of regulations to contain the coronavirus outbreak. At one point, police used pepper rounds to disperse people who had surrounded officers, it said.

“Police condemn protesters for disregarding the Government’s disease prevention and control measures, and participating in or organizing prohibited group gatherings,“the statement said.

Protesters later built barriers to block roads in Hong Kong’s Mongkok district and set fires on some streets, according to police.

The clashes followed multiple protests at shopping malls earlier Sunday attended by hundreds, after permission for a Mother’s Day protest march was denied. Protesters are demanding full democracy in the semiautonomous Chinese territory and an investigation into alleged police brutality in suppressing the demonstrations.

Last year’s protests were sparked by a nowabandoned extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China to face trial.

Hundreds of thousands of people marched through Hong Kong last year in repeated demonstrations that often ended in pitched battles, with protesters throwing gasoline bombs and police using tear gas and firing nonlethal projectiles.