Hong Kong protests: riot police back in action after crowd gathers in Sham Shui Po and station is targeted with laser pointers

Dozens of demonstrators assemble on Sham Shui Po footbridge and shine laser pointers at police station, the scene of several recent confrontations

Protesters also appeared in Wong Tai Sin outside the disciplined services quarters

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Protesters point laser beams in Sham Shui Po. Photo: Edmond So

Published: 1:34am, 27 Aug 2019Updated: 9:14am, 27 Aug 2019

Hong Kong riot police dispersed anti-government protesters who had gathered and pointed laser beams at a police station late on Monday.

Dozens of demonstrators had assembled in Sham Shui Po on a footbridge at the Dragon Centre shopping mall on Yen Chow Street from about 8.30pm. They shone laser pointers at the nearby Sham Shui Po Police Station, a location that had seen several such gatherings and dispersal operations by officers using tear gas this month.

The gathering followed a weekend of unprecedented violence, in which police water cannons were deployed for the first time and an officer fired a warning shot into the air after he and several colleagues were attacked by protesters in Tsuen Wan on Sunday. Hong Kong has been rocked by 12 weeks of increasingly violent demonstrations sparked by the now-shelved extradition bill.

The crowd on Monday grew to more than 100 people and some started to build road blocks at the junction of Yen Chow Street and Yu Chau Street at about 10.20pm.

Officers appear on the streets near Sham Shui Po Police Station. Photo: Edmond So

Police urged residents to shut their windows and people to leave the street in a broadcast from the station, but the volume was too low to be heard by many.