Protesters in Hong Kong yesterday rampaged through several metro stations and shopping malls, prompting at least four stations to close and police to fire tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.
As anti-government protests entered their 16th week, protesters tried to find novel ways to stay one step ahead of the police while expressing their dissatisfaction with the government.
Dramatic scenes emerged from the upscale New Town Plaza mall where thousands of protesters clad in black gathered.
After about an hour of singing the protest anthem Glory To Hong Kong, accompanied by a brass ensemble, protesters targeted shops believed to be pro-Beijing or pro-government, pasting posters and shouting slogans in the shops.
The businesses included mobile phone retailer Huawei, bubble tea chain HeyTea and restaurant chain Maxim's, where protesters overwhelmed the self-service reservation system by requesting multiple queue tickets. They later hung the tickets as streamers across the mall.
But the afternoon soon took a more destructive turn when groups of protesters targeted Sha Tin MTR station, which is linked to the mall, trashing ticketing machines and security cameras. They also returned to trash public areas of New Town Plaza, but quickly fled when riot police arrived.
Demonstrators and police were locked in a stand-off outside the mall in the early evening when protesters set fire to rubbish and dried plants from a nearby park. After several protesters lobbed bricks and petrol bombs at officers, police fired tear gas and gave chase, leading to a cat-and-mouse game in the park surrounding Shing Mun River.
Similar scenes of destruction took place at Kowloon, Nam Cheong and Kwai Fong MTR stations, which the rail operator shut as a precaution, and trains skipped stops.
As night fell, protesters regrouped outside Mong Kok Police Station, a site of multiple stand-offs, where they taunted officers, pointing laser pens into the building and at officers on duty. By 10pm, several rounds of sponge bullets had been fired.
An initial plan to "stress-test" the airport's transport system earlier in the day failed to gain any traction amid stepped-up security - the Airport Express train stopped only at the downtown Hong Kong station, skipping all other stops, and passengers had their travel documents checked. At the terminal building, with a court injunction still in force, only those with a valid boarding pass were allowed to enter the building.
It was a stark contrast from weeks earlier when thousands of protesters flooded the terminal and choked off surrounding roads, causing massive delays and forcing travellers to get out on the expressway and walk to the airport, towing their luggage.
The protests started in June over a Bill, which has since been withdrawn, that would have allowed suspects to be sent to China for trial.
Photographs of petrol bombs and street clashes broadcast worldwide are presenting a huge headache for Beijing, just days before the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on Oct 1.
