Hong Kong police launched tear gas at protesters on Sunday, as a massive pro-democracy march continued late into the evening.
The action was the latest confrontation between police and demonstrators who have taken to the streets to protest against an extradition bill and call for electoral reforms in the Chinese territory.
Later, police threw tear gas canisters at protesters to try to disperse them.
Hong Kong media released video footage showing masked assailants attacking commuters in a subway station. Among those attacked were protesters clad in their trademark black clothing and yellow hard hats.
The attackers, meanwhile, were dressed in white with black masks pulled over their heads. On Saturday, demonstrators wore white at a counter-rally in support of police.
Footage from Apple Daily showed the attackers using umbrellas to beat people in the station and inside a subway carriage. Subway passengers filmed by Stand News and iCABLE angrily accused police officers of not intervening in the attack.
The statement also said that “some radical protesters initiated a series of violent acts… despite repeated warnings” by the police. They said the acts included the hurling of petrol bombs, setting fires and throwing bricks.
“This is absolutely unacceptable to Hong Kong as a society that observes the rule of law,” the statement said, referring to the acts of the subway attackers as well as the protesters.
Organisers said 430,000 people participated in the march, while police said there were 138,000 during the procession’s “peak period”.
Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, has declared the bill dead, but protesters are dissatisfied with her refusal to formally withdraw the legislation. Some are also calling for her to resign amid growing concerns about the steady erosion of civil rights in the city.
A former British colony, Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997 and was promised certain democratic freedoms under the framework of “one country, two systems.” Fuelled by anger at Ms Lam and an enduring distrust of the Communist Party-ruled central government in Beijing, the current demonstrations have ballooned into calls for electoral reform and an investigation into alleged police brutality.
Walking in sweltering heat, protesters dressed in black kicked off Sunday’s march at a public park, carrying a large banner that read “Independent Inquiry for Rule of Law.”
“I think the government has never responded to our demands,” said Karen Yu, a 52-year-old Hong Kong resident who has attended four protests since they started. “No matter how much the government can do, at least it should come out and respond to us directly.”
Marchers ignored orders from police to finish off the procession on a road in Wan Chai, according to police and the Civil Human Rights Front, the march’s organisers.
Protesters repeated the five points of their “manifesto,” which was first introduced when a small group of them stormed the legislature earlier this month. Their main demands include universal suffrage — direct voting rights for all Hong Kong residents — as well as dropping charges against anti-extradition protesters, withdrawing the characterisation of a clash between police and protesters as a “riot” and dissolving the Legislative Council.
Protesters read the demands aloud in both English and Cantonese in videos released Saturday.
While the demonstrations have been largely peaceful, some confrontations between police and protesters have turned violent. In Sha Tin district last Sunday, they beat each other with umbrellas and bats inside a luxury shopping centre. Demonstrators broke into the Legislative Council building on July 1 by moving past barricades and shattering windows. Meanwhile, police officers have used pepper spray, tear gas, bean bag rounds and rubber bullets to quell the crowds.
On Friday, Hong Kong police discovered a stash of a powerful homemade explosive and arrested a man in a raid on a commercial building. Materials voicing opposition to the extradition bill were found at the site, local media said, but a police spokesman said no concrete link had been established and the investigation was continuing.
The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, condemned “radical extremists” who attacked the legislature and “trampled” on Hong Kong’s rule of law in a front-page column on Sunday. The paper said a counter-rally on Saturday intended to show support for the police reflected “mainstream public opinion” in Hong Kong.
