Hong Kong protests: hundreds take to streets in second straight day of defiance against newly imposed anti-mask law

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong on Saturday in the second straight day of defiance against a newly imposed anti-mask law, while dozens of radicals vandalised shops in the border town of Sheung Shui.

The new law came into force at midnight on Friday and, in a first, officers at Mong Kok Police Station, a regular flashpoint during protests, warned a crowd of about 100 gathered outside late on Saturday to remove any face coverings immediately or they could face criminal charges.

Messages circulated on the internet had called for protests in more than 20 areas, including hotspots such as Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui and Sha Tin, as well as places like Sheung Shui, Tai Po and Aberdeen, which had been relatively quiet in recent months.

Some plans were realised, as more than 1,000 marched from Causeway Bay to Central, hundreds formed a human chain in Tsim Sha Tsui and others staged a peaceful sit-in at the Tai Po Mega Mall shopping centre. Dozens smashed several shops in Sheung Shui.

As night fell, groups showed up in other areas, including Yuen Long, Wong Tai Sin, Tai Po, Aberdeen, and the Metro City Plaza mall in Tseung Kwan O, for flash-mob protests, blocking roads, vandalising rail facilities and chanting slogans. The Shap Pat Heung rural committee building was broken into and vandalised by protesters who first threw a petrol bomb on the balcony of the two-storey premises.

Riot police arrested at least two people in Wong Tai Sin while a water cannon was on standby on Nathan Road in Mong Kok. In Tin Shui Wai, masked protesters vandalised outlets of Bank of China, Genki Sushi and Best Mart 360.