《TAIPEI TIMES》 Police, protesters clash in Hong Kong

THIRD DAY OF PROTEST: For a second straight night, riot police fired volleys of tear gas at demonstrators, who were yesterday protesting against police tactics

/ Bloomberg, with staff writer

請繼續往下閱讀...

Hong Kong demonstrators and police yesterday clashed for a second straight day as the territory’s government struggles to quell growing discontent and amid violent clashes that have marred the historic movement in recent weeks.

Protesters occupied two areas at opposite ends of central Hong Kong island following an afternoon rally against police use of tear gas on Sunday last week.

As night fell, one group that had blocked a road near the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region began to move forward.

The police issued warnings, and protesters were seen throwing eggs at them.

Officers fired volleys of tear gas to halt the advance of hundreds of black-shirted protesters and wrestled some people to the ground to make arrests in Sai Ying Pun, a residential and business area where the liaison office is located.

Police appealed to people to stay indoors with their windows shut as officers use tear gas to try to drive protesters from the streets.

They said they used tear gas to disperse protesters who hurled bricks at officers, in a situation that was “drastically deteriorating.”

Groups of protesters has earlier defied police orders and fanned out from a rally in centrally located Chater Garden, a park east of the government’s legislative complex that had drawn thousands of people.

They marched without a definite plan toward the Admiralty, Wan Chai and Causeway Bay areas that were ground zero for previous mass rallies, with some moving west toward the liaison office.

Chanting “Add oil,” a phrase that roughly means “Keep up the fight,” a huge crowd marched down a wide thoroughfare before stopping near the Sogo department store in Causeway Bay and setting up barricades to block off the area and defend it against police.

They also chanted slogans including “liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time,” “shame on police who beat people” and “return us the right to demonstrate.”

MTR Corp, Hong Kong’s urban rail operator, said service had been suspended between Sai Ying Pun and Kennedy Town.

Yesterday’s march came the day after thousands of protesters descended on the suburb of Yuen Long in the New Territories near the Chinese border to condemn a mob attack against train commuters and demonstrators that shocked the territory on Sunday night last week.

A sit-in on Friday at Hong Kong International Airport also drew thousands and underscored the economic risk of continued unrest.

Police on Saturday used batons, tear gas and pepper spray on people throwing stones and wielding metal rods.

Thirteen people were arrested for their involvement in Yuen Long, Police Public Relations Branch Senior Superindent Yolanda Yu told reporters yesterday.

That march’s organizer, Max Chung （鍾健平）, had been taken into custody, she said.

“The police’s job was to disperse protesters, not to vent their own anger on them,” Joe Pang, a 65-year-old retired bank manager, said of Saturday’s protests as he gathered in Chater Garden holding up a poster that read “Stop the violence.”

Nine people were hurt on Saturday, Radio Television Hong Kong reported, while police said four officers were injured.

The government expressed “deep regret” over the march in Yuen Long, which went ahead despite the lack of a permit, and condemned “radical protesters” who charged police cordons, disrupting public peace and challenging the law.

Police early yesterday said the protesters on Saturday had disregarded the personal safety of residents and the public.

They used metal poles and self-made shields to attack officers and charge the cordon line — they even removed fences from roads to form road blocks, a police statement said.

Additional reporting by AP

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES