(Reuters) –Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying told reporters at a hastily called news conference on Tuesday (February 9) that the city’s government strongly condemned the violence which took place in the early morning.
“There was a riot in Mong Kok in the early hours of today. A few hundred mobs attacked police officers and the media in Mong Kok. They damaged police cars and public properties, committed acts of arson, threw bricks and other objects at police officers including those who had already been injured and were lying on the ground seriously jeopardising the safety of police officers and other people at the site. I believe that the public can see for themselves from TV news reports the seriousness of the situation. The SAR government strongly condemns such violent acts, the police will apprehend the mobs and bring them to justice. Also I send my regards to the police officers and members of the media who were injured in the riot,” said Leung.
He also said that he and the Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok believed the clashes had been organised.
When asked about the warning shots, Lai said police had taken all necessary action.
Hong Kong riot police fired warning shots on Tuesday during angry clashes that erupted when authorities tried to remove illegal street stalls set up for Lunar New Year celebrations, the worst street violence since pro-democracy protests in 2014.
Protesters prized bricks from the sidewalk to hurl at police, while others toppled street signs and set fire to rubbish bins in Mong Kok, a gritty neighbourhood just across the harbour from the heart of the Asian financial centre.
As many as 48 police were injured in the clashes, a police spokeswoman said. Hong Kong television showed police officers being beaten with poles and sticks as they lay on the ground.
Many protesters and police were also shown with blood streaming down their faces. The police spokeswoman also said 24 protesters were arrested.
Police said two warning shots were fired into the air, with pepper spray and batons also used to disperse the crowd. Television footage showed the shots were fired as protesters surrounded several traffic police, pelting them with rubbish, bricks and bottles and wrestling one of them to the ground.
The protesters had dispersed by 8 a.m. local time (0000 GMT) but more than 100 had confronted police in a tense, pre-dawn stand-off during the Lunar New Year holiday, when most of the city is shut down.
Police told Reuters they were awaiting orders about security plans for Tuesday night.
Hong Kong Indigenous, a “localist” group that is fielding a candidate in a Legislative Council by-election in a few weeks, was involved in the protest, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported.
The group said on its official Facebook page that its candidate, Edward Leung Tin-kei, had been arrested. They could not be reached immediately by telephone to confirm his arrest.
Hong Kong police declined to comment on who had been involved in the protests or to confirm who had been arrested.
Many so-called localists remain deeply embittered by the lack of any concessions from Beijing or Hong Kong authorities during the pro-democracy protests. Television footage showed protesters on Tuesday shouting: “Establish a Hong Kong country!” during running battles with the police.
Radical protesters and “localists” demanding greater Hong Kong autonomy have vowed to keep fighting even as China shows signs of tightening its grip.
The clashes in December 2014 came when authorities cleared the last of pro-democracy demonstrators from the streets after more than two months of protests that had posed one of the Beijing’s greatest political challenges in decades.
