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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Peaceful HK rally, then clashes
Protesters yesterday arrange origami cranes into a display during an anti-government rally at Shatin New Town Plaza mall in Hong Kong’s New Territories. Photo: AP
ORIGAMI TO BARRICADES: Protesters made paper cranes in the Shatin New Town Plaza mall before one group attacked a subway station, triggering clashes with police
/ AFP and AP, HONG KONG
Pro-democracy protesters yesterday clashed with riot police outside a mall, with some activists vandalizing a nearby subway station and defacing a Chinese flag, but plans to disrupt the airport did not materialize.
Police fired brief volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets in Shatin in the New Territories late yesterday afternoon, capping a day that saw thousands rally peacefully inside a mall before the mood soured.
Authorities reduced rail and bus links to the Hong Kong International Airport, while police stepped up security checks in a successful bid to stop a crowd from massing at the airport.
The day’s action began peacefully, as protesters filled the Shatin New Town Plaza mall and, in a new twist, folded paper “origami” cranes that they tied onto a large rigging that they assembled in the mall.
Some put a Chinese flag on the floor and took turns running over it, before defacing it and putting it in a dumpster outside, which they then pushed into a nearby river.
One group later attacked the Shatin subway station, which is connected to the mall.
They jumped up to smash overhead surveillance cameras, used hammers to knock ticket sensors off gates and spray-painted and broke the screens of ticket machines, using umbrellas to shield their identities.
Riot police arrived following the attack and guarded the station after it was closed, with a metal grill pulled down to block entry.
Protesters then built a barricade across a street near the mall, piled what appeared to be brown palm fronds on top and set them on fire.
Police fired tear gas as they tried to advance on the protesters, who had retreated before taking a position behind a wall of umbrellas that those in the front held.
A standoff between police and a few dozen activists behind umbrella shield walls ensued, but the protesters soon dispersed once tear gas and rubber bullets were launched at them.
Police snatch squads made multiple arrests.
Before making the cranes, protesters at the mall chanted slogans and sang a song that has become their anthem, backed by a small group playing on woodwind and brass instruments through their masks.
“Even if we are very tired, we can’t give up on our rights,” a teacher at the rally, who gave her surname as Ching, told Agence France-Presse. “If it [the movement] stretches to 100 days, 200 days or even 1,000 days and we still don’t get what we want, we will continue to come out.”
Many protesters lined the balustrades of the three higher floors overlooking where others gathered in the wide space below.
The Hong Kong International Airport Authority said the airport express train would operate between the airport and the terminus station in the center of Kowloon, without making its usual stops in between.
Some airport bus routes were also suspended.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
Police officers push through a barricade, set up by protesters to block an entrance to the Kowloon MTR station, during a “window shopping march” in Hong Kong yesterday. Photo: AFP
