Rescued, grabbed or given, it all helps build an Occupy barricade

From metal barriers to bus stop signs, traffic cones, pieces of wood, bamboo and cement, protesters used anything they could get their hands on to build the barricades that paralysed traffic in Admiralty, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok.

Occupiers have told how they picked up materials from the street or rubbish dumps, collected them from well-wishers and sometimes simply commandeered them from outnumbered police struggling to control the throngs of protesters.

"Sometimes we'll just salvage what we can from the streets," hairstylist Tang Wai-hon, 29, said as he sat on a black sofa next to the Academy for Performing Arts in Wan Chai.

"Take this sofa. Someone just threw it away and left it somewhere. Or if we see anything in nearby refuse dumps that might be useful, we'll bring it over."

The occupiers admit they didn't always act strictly within the law - a point underlined by police arriving to tear down the barricades who said they had come to take back their property.

"We know some of what we're doing is technically illegal," said Tang, who joined the protests on September 28.