Hong Kong police fired repeated volleys of tear gas to disperse pro-democracy protests yesterday and baton-charged the crowd blocking a key road in the government district after official warnings against illegal demonstrations.
The city’s Admiralty district had descended into chaos as chanting protesters converged on police barricades surrounding colleagues who had earlier launched a “new era” of civil disobedience to pressure Beijing into granting full democracy to Hong Kong.
Police, in lines five deep in places and wearing helmets and gas masks, staged repeated pepper spray attacks and shot tear gas into the air. The crowds fled several hundred yards, scattering their umbrellas and hurling abuse at police “cowards.”
Crowds returned however and by early evening tens of thousands of protesters were thronging streets, including outside the prominent Pacific Place shopping mall that leads towards the Central financial district.
Fresh rounds of tear gas cleared some of the roads in Admiralty and pushed the crowds towards Central.
Police had not used tear gas in Hong Kong since breaking up World Trade Organisation protests against South Korean farmers in 2005.
Clouds of tear gas also blew back towards police lines, but it is unclear how many people on either side have needed treatment.
“We will fight until the end...we will never give up,” said Peter Poon, a protester in his 20s, adding that they may have to make a temporary retreat as night falls.
Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying pledged “resolute” action against the protest movement known as Occupy Central with Love and Peace.
“The police are determined to handle the situation appropriately in accordance with the law,” Leung said just hours before the charge began.
A spokesperson for China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office added that the central government fully supported Hong Kong’s handling of the situation “in accordance with the law.”
Inside the cordon, thousands had huddled in plastic capes, masks and goggles as they waited for a fresh police charge to clear the area before Hong Kong opens for business on Monday morning.
Student organisers, urging calm, warned that police could return with rubber bullets.
Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a formula known as “one country, two systems” that guaranteed a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China. Universal suffrage was set as an eventual goal.