Mother's Day Protests Put 18 In Hospital

Hospital officials say 18 people were taken to accident and emergency departments for injuries they suffered during protests in several parts of the city on Sunday.

Police fired pepper spray on various occasions as well as pepper balls inside a shopping mall, and social media was flooded with photos and videos of scuffles, people bleeding, crowds being rounded up, and others, including a young boy, pinned to the ground.

The Democratic Party's Roy Kwong was among those taken to hospital. TV footage showed police knocking him down in Mong Kok and several officers then surrounding him.

The lawmaker had been struck in the abdomen with a baton and an officer pressed his knee on Kwong's head as he lay in the road.

His party colleague Ted Hui said he had been to visit Kwong in Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Hui said Kwong was conscious but he could only spend a short while with him and it wasn't clear what his injuries were.

The police claimed Kwong had thrown a water bottle at them and said he had been arrested on suspicion of disorder in a public place.

The party's Helena Wong, raised the force's treatment of Kwong at a meeting of Legco's public works subcommittee attended by Transport Secretary Frank Chan.

She said incidents like that and the pepper-spraying of reporters on Sunday had left the public feeling disgusted by the police.

The government issued a statement overnight saying "violent protesters" in Mong Kok had "seriously disturbed" public order and had posed a threat to public safety.