NewProtesters scuffle with police in New Year's Day march for universal suffrage

At least four protesters were taken away by the police after they scuffled with officers in Central during the New Year’s Day march on Wednesday afternoon.

The clash broke out when a group of protesters were trying to run out of a barricaded zone to block traffic on Pedder Street in Central. They were also carrying plastic bags loaded with tomatoes that they intended to throw.

The four protesters were from the same activists’ group that broke into the Central Barracks of the People's Liberation Army last week to call for policy priority to Hong Kong people.

Thousands of marchers set off from Victoria Park during the New Year’s Day rally on Wednesday afternoon to press for “genuine” universal suffrage in the 2017 chief executive election.

The protestors, with the first batch leaving Victoria Park around 3pm, were marching westward through the busy shopping areas in Causeway Road, Yee Wo Street and Hennessy Road to finish at Chater Garden in Central.

It took about 50 minutes for all the marchers to leave the park. Some of them had just cast their ballots in a mock referendum on the constitutional reform proposal.