Update | Pepper spray and barricades used as new-town protesters try to storm Legco complex
Scenes of chaos as police use pepper spray to force back angry campaigners trying to force open the doors to Legco building
An angry, 200-strong crowd demonstrating against the government's plans for two new towns tried to force their way into the Legco building last night as police officers targeted them with pepper spray through the smashed glass of wall panels.
Protesters kept pushing at the doors behind their open umbrellas in an attempt to protect their faces from the stinging spray. One disabled man was seen reversing his electric wheelchair into a set of doors in an attempt to force them open.
Several people were seen pinned to the floor before being taken away by officers, while others received treatment from paramedics.
The lead-up to the drama started at about 3pm as people began arriving in time for the resumption of the Legislative Council's Finance Committee debate on a HK$340 million funding request for engineering works linked to plans to build two new towns in the northeastern New Territories.
They found the Legco complex surrounded by hundreds of barricades in an apparent effort to prevent a repeat of last Friday's scenes, when campaigners against the development plans occupied the building's ground floor during the committee's discussions.
"Legco today is no different from a prison. Lawmakers have lost the respect of the public," pan-democrat lawmaker Leung Yiu-chung said.
Denied access, the protesters, some of whom will lose their homes as a result of the development, sat in circles in front of the Legco complex.
At 5.15pm, one of the villagers whose home is set to disappear under the plans climbed onto a portico to put up a banner reading, "Withdraw the plan". He scuffled with police before returning to the ground.
During the ensuing mayhem, Ng ended up postponing the vote and the meeting, citing security reasons. The crowd then calmed down, only for chaos to erupt again until pan-democratic lawmakers emerged to call for calm.
It is the first time a meeting has been suspended due to security concerns since Legco moved to the Tamar site in 2011.
At 12.45am this morning, about 100 people remained sitting outside the building.
Police said they had made three arrests, all in the afternoon.
