SINGAPORE: Hong Kong police fired volleys of tear gas to disperse protesters marching in sweltering heat on Saturday (Sep 21) after pro-China groups pulled down some of the "Lennon Walls" of anti-government messages in the Chinese-ruled city.
The first volley was fired when a protester hurled a petrol bomb towards the approaching police line.
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The marchers converged on the government offices in the town of Tuen Mun, in the west of the New Territories, where some set fire to a Chinese flag on the ground as others tore down wooden and metal fences and traffic bollards to build road blocks.
Pro-democracy protesters set up barricades on a road in Hong Kong's Tuen Mun district on Sep 21, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Nicolas ASFOURI)
Some were trashing fittings at the Light Rail Transit station, digging up bricks and picking up stones at the sides of the tracks. Others turned fire extinguishers on the police.
Police made several arrests.
READ: Amnesty accuses Hong Kong police of arbitrary arrests, torture
Dozens of Beijing supporters had earlier torn down some of the large mosaics of colorful Post-it notes calling for democracy and denouncing perceived Chinese meddling in the former British colony which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
"I am a Chinese man!" one the Beijing supporters shouted in defence of his actions when confronted by protesters.
READ: Pro-Beijing groups tear down some of Hong Kong's 'Lennon Walls'
READ: 'Cleanup Time' – Pro-China lawmaker targets Hong Kong's Lennon Walls
The walls have blossomed across the Asian financial center, at bus stops and shopping centers, under footbridges, along pedestrian walkways and at universities.
They have also occasionally become hot spots of violence in more than three months of unrest.
The subway transit operator, MTR, closed stations near potential protest sites, including Tuen Mun.
A policeman holds a riot shotgun during protests in Hong Kong's Tuen Mun district on Sep 21, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Nicolas ASFOURI)
Hong Kong's protests picked up in June over legislation, now withdrawn, that would have allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial. Demands have since broadened into calls for universal suffrage.
A pro-Beijing city legislator, Junius Ho, who has been a vocal critic of the protests, had urged his supporters to clean up approximately 100 Lennon Walls around the city on Saturday.
But in a message posted late on Friday on his Facebook page, Ho said "for the sake of safety" the Lennon Walls would not be cleared up, only the streets.
"RISING AGAIN"
Steve Chiu, who works in finance, said people like Ho would only give the pro-democracy movement fresh impetus.
“Through provocative acts like this, he helps unify the moderates and frontline in the movement," he told Reuters.
"It's like a wave. Sometimes were in a trough and sometimes on a crest, and were rising again.”
The walls are named after the John Lennon Wall in
