Noon Protest At IFC Mall Leads To Tussle, Fines

Police dispersed protesters who gathered at the IFC mall in the central business district on Friday to raise anti-government slogans during the lunch hour, with some reporters complaining that they were pepper-sprayed after a scuffle with the officers.

The protesters had gathered at the upscale mall in Central after online calls for a protest over a Legco row, and the more than two dozen people who turned up spread themselves across different floors to observe social distancing measures.

As they started shouting slogans and singing the protest anthem Glory to Hong Kong, a handful of police officers appeared in the mall and warned them, saying they were breaking coronavirus restrictions.

But the protesters ignored the warnings and completed their singing before splitting up.

Dozens of police officers then ran into the mall and some officers started checking the ID of some young people.

A scuffle ensued as officers tried to take away a young man who shouted out that he was a journalist. Some media people around the youngster got into a scuffle with the officers before they eventually took him away.

Some reporters said they were pepper-sprayed by the officers during the incident and voluntary first aiders were seen attending to them.

After things died down, two teenagers said they were slapped with HK$2,000 fines by the police for breaking social distancing measures.

The League of Social Democrats’ Tsang Kin-shing said he was also given a fixed penalty ticket by the police for allegedly breaching a law banning public gatherings of more than eight people.