HK police fire tear gas at protesters in residential area

Bloomberg

Hong Kong demonstrators and police clashed for a second straight day as the city’s China-backed government struggles to quell growing discontent and amid violent clashes that have marred the historic movement in recent weeks.
Police fired volleys of tear gas at hundreds of black-shirted protesters on Sunday in Sai Ying Pun, a residential and business area where the Chinese government’s liaison office in Hong Kong is located. Protesters vandalised the liaison building, drawing stern warnings from Beijing and sparking fears that China’s military would be called in to restore order.
A number of stores in the neighbourhood were closed ahead of the tense standoff, as riot police carrying shields marched in rows down a main street. Police said they used tear gas to disperse protesters who hurled bricks at officers, in a situation that was “drastically deteriorating.”
Thousands of people initially gathered at centrally-located Chater Garden and marched without a definite plan toward the Admiralty, Wan Chai and Causeway Bay areas that were ground zero for previous mass rallies. They had chanted slogans including “liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time,” “shame on police who beat people” and “return us the right to demonstrate.”
The sprawling Sogo department store in Causeway Bay, owned by Lifestyle International Holdings, was closed though the situation in that area remained peaceful.
Sunday’s march came the day after thousands of protesters descended on the suburb of Yuen Long near the Chinese border to condemn a mob
attack against train commuters and demonstrators that shocked the city last weekend.
A sit-in at Hong Kong’s international airport also drew thousands and underscored the economic risk of continued unrest. Police 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, Yolanda Yu, a senior superintendent at the Police Public Relations Branch, told reporters on Sunday.
That march’s organiser, Max Chung, 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, Hong Kong’s RTHK 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.
About 288,000 people took part in Saturday’s protest, organiser Chung told reporters. Police, citing the lack of a permit, wouldn’t estimate the size of the crowd.
Police early on Sunday said the protesters disregarded the personal safety of residents and the public.
The demonstrators 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, according to a police statement.