Yuen Long 'dispute' Too Dangerous At First: Police

Police said the first officers to arrive at Yuen Long MTR Station as a gang of men were attacking hundreds of people on Sunday night did not intervene immediately because they felt “their safety could not be guaranteed”.

The force has come in for serious criticism for what many say was a slow response to the attacks, with no officers in sight when men, mostly dressed in white and brandishing bamboo sticks, chased after and brutally beat MTR passengers and journalists.

Dozens of people required hospital treatment, with one critically injured and five others said to be seriously hurt.

Superintendent Yau Nai-keung, the police's assistant commander of Yuen Long District, said they received a request for help shortly before 11pm on Sunday, and a team of patrolling officers were sent to the station.

At a brief media session on early Monday morning, Yau said about a hundred people were involved in what he called "a dispute between two groups of people", and officers believed the violence had started over different political views.

Yau said officers felt their one patrol team was not sufficient to control the scene, so instead of going into the station, they waited for backup. Yau said other officers with protective gear later arrived and went inside.

He said officers later carried out an "investigation" at the nearby Nam Pin Wai village where some of the attackers were believed to have fled.

But he said no arrests were made, because when plain-clothes officers arrived, no one was found to be holding any weapons.

Media footage had showed masked men in the village brandishing what appeared to be metals rods while scores of riot police stood nearby.

When reporters asked why some people were allowed to go past the police cordon and leave the village, Yau said this was because officers could not be sure these people had been involved in the assaults.

“Even those dressed in white, that doesn’t mean they are involved in the conflict. We will handle each case fairly – no matter the political camp they belong to,” he said.

Yau said the police strongly condemned the violence and appealed to witnesses to provide information to the force.