Yuen Long MTR Exits Shut Ahead Of Protest

The MTR Corporation closed five exits of Yuen Long Station on Saturday afternoon ahead of expected protests to mark eight months since the brutal July 21 mob attack in the area.

Train services were still running normally, though exits A, B, J, K and H of the station were closed for “crowd control management”, the rail operator said. It is the first time the station is not being shut on the 21st of the month since last August.

Internet users have called on people to join a march along Yuen Long’s main road, Castle Peak Road, at 7pm, and stage sit-ins in Causeway Bay, Chai Wan and Heng Fa Chuen stations.

Police also increased their presence in Yuen Long Station.

Ahead of the protests, the Lennon Wall beneath the station was replaced overnight with posters criticising the protest movement, and supporting proposals to re-start national security legislation under Article 23 of the Basic Law.

The posters also blamed the July 21 attack on the Democratic Party's Lam Cheuk-ting, who was one of the dozens of people injured.

The Yuen Long incident is widely regarded as one of the worst events of the months of unrest in the SAR, and sparked widespread criticism of the police who appeared to turn a blind eye to the violence.

Police received a flood of 999 calls as a gang of white-shirted men rampaged through the MTR station, battering people at random with poles and other weapons. But two police officers present around that time left without taking any action and it took police almost 40 minutes to deploy more manpower to the scene.

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