Update | Police fire tear gas as Occupy Central spreads and ranks of protesters swell
Organisers say size of protests show depth of feeling in city over electoral reform
Police fired tear gas to disperse swelling crowds as protesters attempted to break police lines to reach Occupy Central's main protest site at Tamar Park.
Officers fired at least two round of tear gas on Harcourt Road after intermittent attempts to move crowds away from the area with pepper spray were unsuccessful.
The ranks of the movement swelled to as many as 30,000 protesters as protests moved to two fronts, forcing the closure of one of the city’s main thoroughfares to traffic.
LATEST: Police fire tear gas and baton charge thousands of Occupy Central protesters
At 4pm, Occupy organisers said demonstrators had successfully counter-circled police, who were themselves circling the protesters in Tamar. Several hundred people unable to reach the Tamar protest blocked Gloucester Road and Harcourt Road, stopping traffic as crowds surrounded cars and buses.
As the scenes of protest shifted, hundreds of demonstrators gathered on the ground floor of the Admiralty Centre. Police used pepper spray during clashes with protesters there after four police vans carrying more than 100 officers arrived to confront the growing crowd.
Occupy organiser Benny Tai Yiu-ting seemed surprised at the sudden swell of support. “It is totally unexpected," he said.