Mong Kok riot: how Hong Kong’s first night in the Year of the Monkey descended into mayhem
Rioters lay siege to streets of Mong Kok after crackdown on unlicensed hawkers sparks violence
A festive start to the Year of the Monkey descended into a night of mayhem in Mong Kok late on Monday as radical localists found an outlet to vent their grievances by seizing upon the unlikely grassroots issue of hawkers’ livelihoods.
A bloody overnight confrontation with the police that lasted over 10 hours – with fires erupting and repeated clashes – came as a shock to many for whom the word “riot” had not entered their vocabulary even during the height of the Occupy protests of 2014.
Many pronounced the conflagration – prompted by a hawker control patrol in Mong Kok – vastly disproportionate to the issue itself. Hawkers told the Post they were not involved at all in the protests.
There is no clash between police and us ... If I am going to lose money this year, the demonstrators definitely helped
The spark that led to violence began on Portland Street on Monday night, just after 10pm after some in the crowd tried to push a cart full of boiling oil towards Food and Environmental Hygiene Department officers who were patrolling the area, according to health minister Dr Ko Wing-man.
The unlicensed vendors had enjoyed a decades-long tradition of being on the streets during the first few days of the Lunar New Year.
READ MORE: Hong Kong tense after Mong Kok mob violence on first day of Lunar New Year leaves Hong Kong tense
By the time calm resumed at around 8.30am, 124 people had been sent to hospital with injuries. On the streets, the grim remains of the night were scattered debris and charred black marks where fires were lit in at least six spots, overturned rubbish bins and jagged pavements with their concrete exposed, after protesters had prised the bricks loose to use against the police.