Claims come as pro-Beijing groups back officers' handling of protests
Taiwanese sex worker Wang Fang-ping displayed a large bruise on her lower back and said: 'Police are cruel and despicable to have battered us like this - we are defenseless, vulnerable women.'
Ms Wang, speaking after she was released with other detainees, said police hit her on the head, shoulders and body with batons after using tear gas on Saturday.
'We had no weapons. I was forming a human chain with my comrades trying to keep the press from the Korean farmers who were then confronting police with a set of rams made from the metal skeleton of the barricades.
'Then they fired tear gas. Police came out from behind their shields and started chasing me. They used their batons on my head, my arms, my thigh and my shoulders. They continued to hit me after I fell down. I couldn't get up or run because my legs were badly hurt.' Ms Wang said she was almost unconscious when a Taiwanese reporter intervened and dragged her away from the gas. 'It was not until someone splashed water on my face that I regained consciousness.'
The veteran protester condemned the police action as cold-blooded and inhumane.
'The degree of cruelty was something I've never seen,' she said at a press conference.
