Dozens of villagers formed a line yesterday to guard a rural leader's recreational park in Yuen Long where illegal structures were found - but they dispersed without any confrontation as lands officers moved in to deal with the problem.
Leung Fuk-yuen, one of two directors of a company running the park, denied staging the gathering of villagers.
Leung had earlier removed most of the structures, including a toilet, a pavilion and some stone chairs, ahead of an April 28 government deadline, but he insisted on keeping a suspension bridge and the fences and shelters of a zoo.
'People need the bridge to cross a river safely,' he said. 'The rainy season is coming and people may get washed away.' There are two cement bridges next to the suspension one.
The Lands Department took action after being criticised over the 12,000 square-metre park, called Tai Tong Lychee Valley, occupying 5,000 square metres of government land illegally for 18 years.
The department said the park owner had removed 11 structures on unleased government land within Tai Lam Country Park, but an office, a playground, three animal sheds and the bridge remained.
Yesterday morning, villagers and several park staff members guarded the entrance, with some saying they would 'fight till the end'.