HONG KONG - Hong Kong demonstrators clashed
with police into the early hours of Thursday, throwing petrol
bombs and venting their anger over the shooting of a teenager
earlier in the week, as months of anti-government protests
showed no sign of letting up.
Police urged the government to impose curfews to help curb
the escalating violence in the Chinese-ruled city, where
officers have become a target of protesters amid accusations of
excessive force.
Activists went on the rampage in districts across the Asian
financial hub late into the night, setting fires, blocking roads
and vandalising shops and metro stations as police fired tear
gas to disperse them.
"Wherever there are protests nearby I'll come ... I'm out
tonight for a simple reason. You don't shoot a teenager at point
blank range," said Alex Chan, an interior designer at a protest
in the bustling shopping district of Causeway Bay.
"These protests will continue and we won't give up."
Thousands took to the streets on Wednesday to denounce the
shooting by police of Tony Tsang, an 18-year-old
secondary-school student, which police said was an act of
self-defence.
Tsang was shot at point-blank range as he fought a police
officer with a metal pipe on Tuesday, when demonstrators hurled
petrol bombs at police who responded with tear gas, rubber
bullets and water cannon.
He has been charged with rioting and assaulting an officer,
police said.
Rail operator MTR Corp closed stations in districts
including Po Lam, Hang Hau and Tseung Kwan O just before
midnight on Wednesday as violence escalated once again. All
affected stations had reopened on Thursday.
Lam Chi-wai, chairman of Junior Police Officers Association,
urged the city's leader to impose a curfew to maintain public
order, according to a statement released on Wednesday.
"We are only an enforcement agency with limited power under
the law. When facing such a series of massive rioting incidents,
we cannot work alone - clapping only with one hand - without
appropriate measures and support from top level," Lam said.
The Hong Kong public has become increasingly hostile towards
police amid accusations of heavy-handed tactics. Police say they
have shown restraint in the face of increased violence.
The lawyer for an Indonesian journalist injured when police
fired a projectile during protests on Sunday said she will be
left blind in one eye.
The European Union said in a statement it was deeply
troubled by the escalation of violence in Hong Kong and the only
way forward was through "restraint, de-escalation and dialogue".
The former British colony has been rocked by months of
protests over a now-withdrawn extradition bill that would have
allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial, but have
evolved into calls for democracy, among other demands.
The opposition to the Beijing-backed government has plunged
the city into its biggest political crisis in decades and poses
the gravest popular challenge to President Xi Jinping since he
came to power.
Protesters are also angry about what they see as creeping
interference by Beijing in their city's affairs despite a
promise of autonomy in the "one country, two systems" formula
under which Hong Kong returned to China in 1997.
China dismisses accusations it is meddling and has accused
foreign governments, including the United States and Britain, of
stirring up anti-China sentiment.