DEMONSTRATORS blocked rush-hour traffic for an hour in Central yesterday morning, protesting at the Government's decision to demolish their illegal rooftop homes in Tsuen Wan.
Armed with stoves and food to represent their homelessness, the 40 protesters unfurled banners, laid down in the middle of Garden Road and shouted taunts and slogans at police and officials.
The families live in illegal rooftop structures on buildings in Tsuen Wan.
'We came down here today to try to speak to the head of the Buildings Department. It was our last resort,' a woman protester said.
'The Government has done nothing to help us. Where will we live when they demolish our home?' she said.
She claimed the police punched her in the chest when she tried to stop an officer assaulting her husband.
Twenty-two protesters - 13 men and nine women - were dragged, kicking and screaming to police vans. As the vans drove away the protesters could be heard banging on the doors, bellowing: 'The police beat us, the police beat us.' About 30 protesters returned to the Buildings Department office at Garden Road last night and stopped director Helen Yu Lai Ching-ping getting into her car as she was leaving.