Police fired chemical laced blue water and tear gas at protesters who lobbed bricks and petrol bombs at Hong Kong government buildings as violent protests ramped up last night.
Thousands of pro-democracy activists marched through downtown despite a police ban, marking the 99th day of protests in the city.
Some waves US and British flags and sang God Save the Queen while others burned Chinese flags in defiance of the mainland’s Communist Party regime.
A mixed crowd of protesters wearing masks and black clothes marched over 2km from the Causeway Bay shopping area to the central business district.
Police had turned down a request by the Civil Human Rights Front to hold the march, but demonstrators fearing the creeping power of the People’s Republic of China went ahead with it anyway.
Protester Winnie Leung, 50, said: ‘I feel this is our duty. The government wants to block us with the ban, but I want to say that the people will not be afraid.’
Banners congratulating the Communist Party on its 70th year in power on October 31 were torn down by protesters while others smashed glass windows and surveillance cameras at a subway station exit.
Hundreds of demonstrators later pelted the government office complex with bricks and petrol bombs through police barriers.
Police responded by firing volleys of tear gas and using water cannon trucks to spray chemical-laced water as well as blue liquid that helped them identify offenders.
Protesters retreated but regrouped in the nearby Wan Chai neighborhood, and started fires outside a subway station exit and on the streets before fleeing from riot police.
Pro-Beijing supporters turned up at the North Point and Fortress Hill neighborhoods late Sunday, leading to brawls.
In a statement today police said people attacked each other with iron hammers and other weapons, leading to a number of injuries and forcing police to fire tear gas.
They also said in one case, protesters hurled petrol bombs at two police officers, who were forced to withdraw pistols as a warning to disperse them.
In a statement, Hong Kong’s government warned violence would only harm local communities and stressed it was trying to solve the ongoing power struggle with China.
Protests were triggered in June by an extradition bill seen by many as an example China chipping away at Hong Kong residents’ freedoms and rights, many of which are not accorded to people in the mainland.
Hong Kong’s government promised this month to withdraw the bill, which would have allowed some criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial.
But some protesters have widened their demands to include direct elections for the city’s leaders and more police accountability.
More than 1,300 people have been arrested amid increasing clashes between protesters and police, who demonstrators have accused of abuses.
The unrest has battered Hong Kong’s economy, which was already reeling from the U.S.-China trade war.
It is also seen as an embarrassment to Beijing, which has accused foreign powers of fomenting the unrest.
Earlier on Sunday hundreds of protesters waved Union Jacks, sang Britain’s national anthem and chanted ‘UK save Hong Kong’ outside the British consulate as they stepped up calls for international support.
They held banners declaring ‘one country, two systems is dead’ as they repeated calls for Hong Kong’s former colonial ruler to ensure the city’s autonomy is upheld under agreements made when it ceded power to China in 1997.
A demonstrator destroys a surveillance camera at Wan Chai MTR Station (Picture: SOPA/SIPA USA)
On Saturday, pro-democracy protesters and supporters of the central government in Beijing clashed at a Hong Kong shopping mall and several public places.
Police arrested more than a dozen people and hospital authorities said 25 were injured.
The clashes came after several nights of peaceful rallies that featured protesters belting out a new protest song in mass singing at shopping malls.
Thousands of people carried lanterns with pro-democracy messages in public areas and formed illuminated human chains on two of the city’s peaks on Friday night to mark China’s mid-autumn festival.
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