Police Face Off Against Revellers In Lan Kwai Fong

Police were in a stand off with Halloween revellers in Lan Kwai Fong on Thursday night after officers stopped people from entering the entertainment area from the intersection of D'Aguilar Street and Wellington Street as night fell.

Water-filled barriers were set up ahead of people turning out to celebrate the festival and the expected arrival of anti-government protesters from Causeway Bay.

Nearby roads are also closed and the MTR closed Central MTR station at 9pm.

Meanwhile, masked revellers descended on Lan Kwai Fong to celebrate Halloween.

The festival - during which people don masks and scary costumes - has taken on a new significance as Hong Kong government invoked a colonial era ordinance to bring a new law which bans the use of face masks during public events.

The new law also gives police the power to ask a wearer to remove the mask in order to establish the identity of the person.

This has triggered alarms of a potential for conflict between police and Halloween revellers if officers venture into entertainment zones like Lan Kwai Fong.

A make up artist, Sam, said fewer artists have set up booths at Lan Kwai Fong this year to help people put on Halloween make up - probably because of the anti-mask law.

He urged police not to ask people to remove their masks at will, saying a lot of tourists celebrated Halloween in Lan Kwai Fong and heavy-handed policing would hurt the city's image.

A bar owner in Lan Kwai Fong, Biru, said businesses are already down by some 60 percent in the past few months.

He said he feared the early closure of the nearest MTR station would deter revellers from coming, making business even worse.

But he doesn’t think the police will fire tear gas in the area as he had heard they won't be coming to Lan Kwai Fong.

Michael, a 27-year-old man, was in the area early, wearing a mask from the movie V for Vendetta. He said he isn’t bothered whether police will come and ask him to take the mask off.

"I will just do what he asks and I won't get arrested. So I am not afraid of that," he said.

______________________________