Handmade bamboo barriers show creative side of Occupy activists

Occupy activists showed craftsmanship as well as resilience yesterday by erecting bamboo barricades hours after police and anti-Occupy protesters cleared some of their blockades.

They built a number of large barricades to defend and block Queensway, east-bound and west-bound.

Self-employed information technology worker Alec Lee, 45, said: "I only learned how to do this when I came here. There were some construction workers teaching us how it can be done.

"The thing is, the police said this morning they were just retrieving government property when they took away railings and cleared some of our barricades. Now they can't use the same excuse because the bamboo is private property."

Protesters said some unknown supporters transported dozens of pieces of bamboo, each several metres long, for them to build the barricades in the afternoon.

Guided by supportive construction workers, they said, they cut the bamboo into shorter pieces and used plastic cuffs to bind the pieces together.

They crossed the bamboo lengths through rubbish bins to make the barricades stronger. They also used cement to weigh some down to the ground.