Hong Kong radical protesters throw petrol bombs
Hong Kong: Radical protesters blocked roads and threw petrol bombs outside the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government offices on Saturday evening.
At least one person was assaulted by black-clad men until his face was bleeding.
Hong Kong police deployed water cannons and fired pepper spray and tear gas to disperse the violent protesters who also damaged properties in Hong Kong’s Admiralty area, Xinhua news agency reported.
At around 6:30 p.m. local time, some radical protesters began charging the police cordon line and aimed laser beams at police officers at the entrance of the HKSAR goverment headquarters complex.
At around 7:30 p.m., a large group of protesters blocked the carriageways in nearby Harcourt Road, paralyzing the traffic.
Some violent protesters damaged properties outside the government headquarters complex and pointed laser beams at a helicopter, posing serious threat to the safety of everyone at scene, according to the Hong Kong police.
A man in a white T-shirt was assaulted in the Tamar Park after he shouted “Hong Kong is forever a part of China” in Mandarin.
Video footage showed him being dragged down to the ground, beaten and kicked hard by a crowd of black-clad men who yelled “go to hell,” until his head was broken with blood in his face.
After he struggled to sit up, the man was heard crying “we are all Chinese, why should we hurt each other?”
In a statement, police said after giving repeated warnings to the protesters in vain, they used minimum force.
Meanwhile, in the nearby HKSAR Legislative Council (LegCo) complex, LegCo Secretariat issued a red alert and required all persons to evacuate from the LegCo complex immediately.
At about 8:45 p.m., police water cannon trucks fired blue jets of water to disperse violent protesters, who hurled bricks at police officers and threw petrol bombs at the government office buildings.
Traffic authorities said several bus routes were suspended or changed routes after protesters blocked roads in Admiralty with traffic cones and other objects.
The HKSAR government issued a statement on Saturday night, strongly condemning the violence around the government headquarters.
Since June, Hong Kong has witnessed escalating violence that originated from protests over the proposed ordinance amendments concerning fugitive offenders transfers.
Although the HKSAR government has withdrawn the amendments, violence continued as protesters veered off their original agenda to raise the ante, causing a split in society and taking a heavy toll on the economy.
On Thursday evening, Chief Executive of the HKSAR Carrie Lam and other officials had candid communication with the members of the public at the first “Community Dialogue.” Lam said she will continue reaching out to people through dialogues to seek a way out for Hong Kong.
