Protesters Flee After Damaging TKO Police Station

Dozens of protesters who pelted the Tseung Kwan O police station with bricks, eggs and other objects left the scene on Sunday shortly after the force warned of an imminent operation to disperse them.

Protesters, wearing masks and black shirts, took turns throwing bricks at the station following a peaceful mass rally in the area earlier in the day, smashing multiple windows as onlookers cheered. Large barriers had earlier been set up outside the station to prevent anyone from approaching, but protesters simply threw the bricks over them.

For more than an hour, police sat by and took no action, but issued a statement past 6pm warning that the demonstrators were causing a “serious threat to the safety of everyone at the scene,” and that a dispersal operation would be conducted “very soon.”

The force appealed to members of the public to leave the area immediately, and condemned “all violent acts by the protesters.”

After news spread of the warning, the protesters quickly moved on to a nearby mall. One protester used a loudhailer to urge his fellow demonstrators to leave the area to attend a separate rally being held in Western district.

Organisers of the earlier rally in Tseung Kwan O claimed a turnout of 150,000, with attendees calling on the government to completely withdrawn the suspended extradition bill, grant amnesty to protesters and implement universal suffrage.

Many also expressed anger at the police handling of earlier demonstrations.