Rail management meet senior Hong Kong police figures for discussions of officers’ actions in two MTR stations on Sunday night
- Rail unions say MTR bosses discussed force’s controversial actions with police management and how staff and passenger safety might be ensured
- Police under fire for deploying tear gas inside Kwai Fong station and for charging at protesters on moving escalator at Tai Koo station
Top brass of Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation met senior police management on Monday afternoon to discuss whether officers’ enforcement actions at the city’s subway stations had posed a danger to its passengers and staff.
The urgent meeting came as police admitted firing tear gas inside Kwai Fong station on Sunday night in an unprecedented deployment and also using pepper balls at Tai Koo station, with riot police charging inside to grab protesters who had been moving from one station to another.
Video footage showed officers at the top of a long moving escalator beating protesters, while smoke filled the air.
Police stepped up the use of force at MTR stations as protesters continued their new hit-and-run tactics to unleash chaos across multiple districts.
On Monday, two rail unions met the MTR’s senior management to raise concerns over staff safety regarding the police crackdown on protesters at the two stations.
Tam Kin-chiu, vice-chairman of the pro-government Hong Kong Federation of Railway Trade Unions, which represents 4,000 MTR workers in four unions, said a lot of members felt terrified by Sunday’s police action at stations and they feared for their safety.
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“We are told that the top management will meet the senior management of police in the afternoon to discuss their actions at the MTR stations and how they can ensure public and staff safety,” he said.
He quoted Adi Lau Tin-shing, the MTR Corp’s operations director as saying that the rail operator’s top priority was to ensure the safety of the public and staff. “Lau told us that the safety of passengers and staff was their primary concern and any police measures that affect their safety would not be acceptable,” he said.
Tam said they had demanded the rail giant give clear instructions about police actions. “The situation at the moving escalator in Tai Koo station was very dangerous. The escalators should have been immediately stopped before yesterday’s enforcement action. I suggest that in future, if there are safety concerns we should promptly close the station,” he said.
He also revealed that the rail operator would closely monitor the movements of crowds and their potential destinations and would inform relevant staff of advanced contingency measures.
“The staff will keep a close eye on crowd movements. For example, if protesters start to take a certain rail line to go to a destination, rail staff will immediately report to staff at that destination for contingency measures,” he said.
Tam also acknowledged that the rail firm would also notify the police of crowd movements as it considered them to be their “partners”.
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He revealed that the rail operator had promised to deploy double manpower for the affected stations on the days of protests and also stepped up protection measures for frontline staff, including the provision of protective gear for train drivers and station control staff, namely helmets and gas masks. “You will see some drivers or staff wearing helmets. They are not protesters but MTR staff,” he said.
As a lot of protesters were jumping turnstiles to catch trains, he said the company had instructed staff to refrain from confronting them out of safety concerns. “The company ask staff not to argue with people who jump over the gates without paying. It doesn’t want them to affect crowd control and just wants them to quickly disperse,” he said.
An MTR source said that every day at closing time at Admiralty station in recent months, there have been thousands of dollars in coins and banknotes left by people for protesters to buy single-journey tickets. Many protesters have been reluctant to use their non-contact Octopus cards for payment for fear of leaving an electronic trail of their movements.
The MTR Corp confirmed its management had met police on Monday to express safety concerns over police actions at Kwai Fong station.
“The MTR management had a meeting with police today and conveyed to them our concern over the incident, and urged them to take the safety of MTR staff and passengers into account during their law-enforcement actions,” it said.
“The corporation also calls on everyone to be considerate and we condemn all acts of violence,” it added.
