AFP ASSOCIATED PRESS Protesters scuffle with riot police in the occupied area in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong, late Friday.
Police used pepper spray and batons to fend off a huge crowd that had gathered in Mong Kok, and several protesters were seen knocked to the ground or carried away by police.
One
protester was seen bleeding from his forehead as he was carried to a
police van, moments after he was forced to the ground by officers.
Neither side appeared willing to back down as police and activists
engaged in running clashes stretching into Saturday in the working class
neighborhood's dense grid of streets. In scenes repeated throughout the
evening, officers used batons to beat back umbrellas used by the crowd
of young protesters to defend themselves from pepper spray.
"The
police have lost control. They are beating up protesters like we're
animals. We are angry. The students are our future," said Tommy Lee, a
45-year-old technology worker who was outraged at seeing police handcuff
four protesters who appeared to be high school students.
Police said three officers were injured. Dozens of protesters were taken away, though it was unclear how many were hurt.
The
chaotic scenes unfolded hours after police had moved in to clear tents,
canopies and barricades at Mong Kok, a smaller protest zone across
Victoria Harbor from the main occupied area in the heart of the
financial district.
Mong
Kok's protest zone had been home to a rowdier, more radical crowd less
willing to follow student leaders, making it the most volatile of the
three areas occupied since Sept. 26 by Hong Kong democracy protesters.
The dawn
operation -- the third in recent days by police to retake streets from
protesters -- came after Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying
sought to defuse the bitter standoff with the protesters on Thursday by
reviving an offer of talks over democratic reforms in the city.
However,
Leung warned that police wouldn't refrain from clearing protest sites
while holding talks. The latest clashes were likely to make it harder to
resolve the crisis with protesters, who were already angered by a video
of a group of officers kicking a handcuffed activist.
Protesters
are pressing for a greater say in choosing the semiautonomous Chinese
city's leader in an inaugural direct election, promised for 2017.
Students
and activists oppose Beijing's ruling that a committee stacked with
pro-Beijing elites should screen candidates in the election. That
effectively means that Beijing can vet candidates before they go to a
public vote.
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Joanna Chiu contributed to this report.
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