Protests Held In Tai Po, Diamond Hill Shopping Malls

Dozens of protesters appeared on Saturday evening at malls in Diamond Hill and Tai Po to raise anti-government slogans leading to riot police moving in and shops downing shutters soon after.

Around 7pm, over a hundred people gathered in the atrium of the Hollywood Plaza in Diamond Hill to shout slogans and sing protest anthem Glory to Hong Kong.

Some people hung banners and waved flags with the slogan "Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of our times" while chanting “five demands, not one less”, the slogan raised by protesters during the anti-extradition bill demonstrations that started last year.

Riot police and plain-clothes officers who were outside the square and at the MTR station nearby soon entered the plaza and started dispersing the crowd.

They warned the crowd that they are breaking the coronavirus restrictions that ban more than eight people gathering at one place. Some shoppers reacted angrily, with one woman shouting back at the officers, saying she had just come for shopping.

The officers were also seen checking ID of some people.

Civic Party lawmaker Jeremy Tam, who was at the mall, accused officers of ordering people without any valid reason.

"Some people were waiting outside restaurants. Why did they have to leave? Is it that the entire shopping mall has to be closed whenever police come? How can people do business? How can the economy be revived? They are distorting the intention of the social distancing rules," he said.

Similar demonstrations also took place at Tai Po Mega Mall around 7pm.

A group of riot police officers were seen intercepting people and checking them outside the shopping mall.

The shopping mall staff put up notices calling on people to maintain proper distance and reduce contact to lower the risk of coronavirus infection.