Democrat councillor Ted Hui injured by his own council's guards

Democratic Party district councillor Ted Hui Chi-fung was allegedly injured in a scuffle with security guards yesterday when he tried to meet a government official as part of his campaign against a HK$150,000 grant to pro-Beijing groups.

Hui, a member of Central and Western District Council, later expressed amazement that he had been blocked from meeting the district officer Cheryl Chow Ho-kiu at the premises of the district council secretariat.

"Everything that happened was beyond my imagination," he said, nursing an injury he said was caused when his leg got caught under a security gate as it was lowered by the guards. His party have demanded an apology from the district office.

Hui received treatment at Pok Fu Lam's Queen Mary Hospital. He said some 10 security guards had used "excessive" force.

Hui and party colleague Ng Siu-hong, who had been conducting a sit-in at the office since Monday, wanted to ask Chow to examine a council decision awarding the grant for activities promoting the Basic Law to the Hong Kong Island Federation - which is closely related to the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong - and the Association of the Hong Kong Central and Western District.

It was the latest twist in a row that had already seen Hui thrown out of a meeting of the council's working group on civic education on March 6. A meeting on March 27 ended in chaos when he resisted another effort to eject him.