Tear Gas Rains Down On Yuen Long Protesters

Police fired pepper spray and volley after volley of tear gas in Yuen Long on Saturday afternoon as riot officers confronted large numbers of protesters in multiple locations around the town.

Standoffs were taking place outside two villages, near the police station, on the main Castle Peak Road and not far from Yuen Long MTR Station.

Protesters on Castle Peak Road tried to shield themselves from tear gas using umbrellas, while officers were also pointing some kind of guns at the crowd.

Teargas was also fired outside Nam Pin Wai village where protesters were also hit with pepper spray after charging at a police cordon.

Officers later raised an orange flag near the village to warn that they would open fire if the crowd did not disperse.

Many of the protesters were wearing face masks and helmets and some threw objects at the riot officers. At around 6.15pm, the crowd started to set up barricades across roads in the area.

A number of pro-democracy lawmakers were present during the protests, with the Democratic Party's Andrew Wan urging officers to stop firing tear gas and allow demonstrators time to leave. The police responded by saying the tear gas would stop when protesters stopped throwing objects at officers.

Another Democratic Party lawmaker, Roy Kwong, shouted angrily at the police saying they should not have fired tear gas near an elderly care home.

Shortly before the first of the tear gas was fired, the police had made a public announcement calling on people to leave the Yuen Long area, warning the situation “may deteriorate quickly”.

Thousands had earlier marched through the town centre in defiance of a protest ban to express their anger of last Sunday night's attacks on MTR passengers at Yuen Long Station.

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