HONG KONG: Plain-clothes police subdued protesters with batons at a shopping mall in Hong Kong’s Sha Tin neighbourhood on Wednesday as clashes between protesters and police continued around the city.
At least one person was arrested outside Langham Place, with more expected to follow. Earlier, police were stopping and searching people coming out of one of its malls on Wednesday, to the shouts of angry bystanders.
Riot police tried to disperse protesters from shopping malls in at least three districts as a city-wide demonstration called “Shop with You,” in which demonstrators disrupt ordinary activities, continued.
One witness also reported seeing a tear gas canister land near the entrance of the famous Peninsula Hotel, which is near Harbour City, a popular shopping complex in Kowloon waterfront and the scene of some of the violence between police and protesters on Tuesday night.
The Asian financial hub was rocked by turbulence on Christmas Eve as protesters took to the streets. In the busy shopping and tourist districts of Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok, marches through malls in which protesters chanted slogans, sung parodies of carols and targeted Beijing-aligned businesses soon spilled onto the streets
It was the first time this month that police resumed their use of tear gas, after a period of calm followed last month’s pro-democracy landslide win at District Council elections.
— dpa
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