Amoy Plaza Rally Leads To Series Of Scuffles

Pro and anti-government rivals engaged in a large-scale brawl and intermittent scuffles in Kowloon Bay on Saturday, with police seperating them repeatedly and arresting some people.

The Amoy Plaza mall became the scene of an all-out brawl between the two sides in the afternoon after a pro-Beijing group started a demonstration.

Tensions started as hundreds of people waving national and Hong Kong SAR flags held a rally with pro-government slogans and the national anthem. Soon after, a group of anti-extradition bill supporters also gathered in the area, shouting counter slogans.

Abuse was hurled on both sides, and soon the confrontations became physical. Police came in and separated the two sides and arrested a few people. Some onlookers accused the officers of only detaining anti-government protesters and treating the pro-Beijing side leniently.

Even though the situation came under control, tempers frayed soon after police left. At one point, a few pro-Beijing protesters were surrounded and attacked by anti-government protesters.

A middle-aged man was surrounded and hit repeatedly, after some protesters accused him of taking photos of people's faces. The attacks went on even after he fell and some protesters opened their umbrellas, making it harder for the press to film what was going on.

Later he was attended by first aid providers and police then took him away in their vehicle.

One of the first aid workers said when he was attending the injured man, a senior police official in white uniform came and thanked him. "But what happened next is that some blue-shirted police arrived and pushed me down with their shield," he said.

In another incident, a woman was wheeled away on stretcher to an ambulance and taken away.

The woman was earlier seen surrounded by a group of people. But they said she fell down and hurt herself.

Some people also said that the woman was part of the pro-Beijing group who had demonstrated there earlier.