Tear Gas, Arrests And Beatings As Violence Spreads

Police shot rounds of tear gas at anti-government protesters in Admiralty and Wan Chai late on Sunday afternoon, before beating, pepper spraying and subduing several people a short time later.

While clashes with the police also took place in Causeway Bay, violent scenes elsewhere included the vicious beating in Sham Shui Po of a taxi driver who had apparently driven into a crowd of protesters who had surrounded his vehicle.

Some protesters had moved back to Wan Chai after tear gas was fired in Admiralty. A barricade was set on fire, and some people were using a digger to try to damage the road.

At around 5pm, an RTHK journalist was hit by a Molotov cocktail, with the raincoat he was wearing catching fire. Protesters rushed forward to extinguish the flames.

The journalist was being treated in hospital but wasn't believed to be seriously injured.

The police later made several arrests after storming towards the crowd of people on Hennessy Road, with at least one Molotov cocktail thrown at officers.

A crowd of protesters were still gathered in Causeway Bay, where they set objects in the road ablaze.

A short while earlier, TV pictures showed a taxi driver being beaten up in Sham Shui Po.

He was dragged out of the taxi and severely battered, with blood pouring from his head. One of the protesters eventually succeeded in persuading the others in the group to stop the assault.

Firefighters were helping the injured man, as well as another person lying in the road nearby.

"Two girls were hit by the car and one girl was trapped between the car and a shop," a witness, who gave his surname as Wong, told the AFP news agency. He added that the crowd managed to push the car off the wounded girl.

Earlier, police officers fired shots from Mong Kok Police Station to try to clear protesters outside. Later in the evening, tear gas was also fired.

Riot officers had also charged at a crowd on Waterloo Road in Kowloon Tong, who then retreated to Tat Chee Avenue and Cornwall Street. By the time the police arrived there, the protesters had disappeared.

In a Facebook post, the police warned protesters to stop all illegal acts. The force also appealed to residents in the Admiralty and Wan Chai areas to stay indoors and keep their windows shut.

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