HONG KONG • Hong Kong's police chief defended the force against criticism yesterday for an apparent failure to protect anti-government protesters and passers-by from attack by what opposition politicians suspected were gang members at a train station on the weekend.
The attack came on Sunday during a night of escalating violence that opened new fronts in Hong Kong's widening political crisis over an extradition Bill that could see people sent to China for trial.
Some politicians and activists have linked Hong Kong's shadowy network of triad gangs to political intimidation and violence in recent years, sometimes against pro-democracy activists and critics of Beijing.
Late on Sunday, scores of men dressed in white T-shirts, some armed with clubs, flooded into Yuen Long station and stormed a train, attacking passengers with pipes, poles and other objects, according to video footage.
Witnesses, including Democratic lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, said the men appeared to target black-shirted passengers who had been at an anti-government march.
Hong Kong's police chief Stephen Lo, asked about concern that police had been slow to respond to the clash at the station, said there had been a need to "redeploy manpower from other districts".
Police stations nearby had closed, given the risk of unrest, and a patrol on the scene needed to wait for reinforcements, he said.
"We will pursue at all costs to bring the offenders to justice," he told reporters, while pledging to restore public confidence in the police force.
Asked by a reporter if the police had colluded with triads at the station, Mr Lo said the force had no links to triads.
Witnesses saw groups of men in white armed with poles and bamboo staves at a nearby village, but police later found no weapons and allowed the men to leave without making any arrests.
"We can't say you have a problem because you are dressed in white and we have to arrest you," said Mr Yau Nai-keung, an assistant police commander in the area.
"We will treat them fairly no matter which camp they are in."
A journalist from Hong Kong online news outlet Stand News was also assaulted while live-streaming the train station attack.
According to the live stream, the journalist continued filming even after she was struck and knocked to the ground, capturing footage of paramedics attending to the injured and people confronting the police who arrived to control the crowds. Stand News later reported that she was taken to hospital for treatment and received stitches.
Located close to the Chinese border, Yuen Long is part of the area known as the New Territories, comprising a mix of rural communities and modern development.
The New Territories are also the domain of the Heung Yee Kuk, a powerful pro-Beijing organisation comprising heads of rural committees which represent villages and market towns.
In Yuen Long, some banks and shops in the area closed early yesterday amid fears of more trouble.
In 2014, Hong Kong's anti-triad police units investigated the role of triad gangs attacking protesters during the pro-democracy demonstrations that shut down parts of the city for 79 days that year.
Mr Alvin Yeung, a barrister and lawmaker with the pro-democracy Civic Party, said he was sure the men were from gangs.
"I hope that the police will not deceive themselves," Mr Yeung said. "It is a triad fight, and not a normal confrontation."
Meanwhile, the Chinese army said yesterday that it held anti-terrorism drills in Guangdong province, near the border with Hong Kong. The exercise near the city of Zhanjiang was held recently to ensure an effective response in case of an emergency, the 74th Army Group said on microblogging platform Weibo. The post was later removed.
