Hong Kong lunchtime protesters return after coronavirus social-distancing rules are eased but police quickly disperse group in mall with pepper spray
- Shortly after dozens of anti-government demonstrators begin yelling slogans and belting out their anthem, police officers enter the IFC Mall in Central
- Police also issue fixed penalty tickets of HK$2,000 to some for breaching social-distancing rule on public gatherings
Later, police used pepper spray to disperse protesters, with some people in press vests also hit.
A group of police officers surrounded one man before he was wrestled to the ground. He sprang back to his feet with a bloody nose.
Police also issued fixed penalty tickets of HK$2,000 (US$256) to some for breaching a social-distancing rule on public gatherings that came into effect in late March.
The government permitted gatherings of up to eight people in public and in restaurants, double the number previously allowed, starting on Friday. Eight types of establishments were also allowed to reopen their doors including fitness centres, gaming arcades, mahjong parlours, amusement and massage centres, beauty salons and cinemas, with certain conditions attached.
Bars back in business as Hong Kong again sees no new Covid-19 cases
Eastern district councillor Tsang Kin-shing, who was fined HK$2,000 (US$256), called the police’s action “unreasonable”.
“I just arrived for about two minutes and saw them start putting up a cordon line. I went to them to inquire about the cordon area and later I was pulled away,” Tsang said, insisting he was not standing near anyone at the time.
At around 1pm, about a dozen protesters, holding banners accusing Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor of suppressing their right of expression by using social-distancing measures as a cover, chanted slogans outside the Apple store on the first floor of the mall.
They were mostly standing in groups of three.
Some onlookers on the upper floors joined the protesters as they chanted one of the movement’s slogans: “Five demands, not one less.”
Some also called for Hong Kong to split from China, saying it was “the only way”, a demand that has angered Beijing.
Protests first broke out last June, sparked by a now-withdrawn extradition bill. The campaign evolved into a wider anti-government movement, with increasingly violent clashes between radical protesters and police.
On Friday, demonstrators also sang Glory to Hong Kong, their de facto anthem, and hurled abuse at police officers before they entered the mall.
Meanwhile, protesters turned out in Tseung Kwan O on Friday night to remember university student Chow Tsz-lok, who died after a fall in a car park in the district six months ago. The 22-year-old second-year computer science undergraduate at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology died of a severe brain injury after falling from the third floor to the second last November.
Crowds also gathered in Mong Kok and Tuen Mun as well as at Pacific Place shopping mall in Admiralty. There was a heavy police presence and officers warned the protesters that they were breaching social-distancing rules.
Officers were seen issuing dozens of fixed penalty tickets.
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