MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th August, 2019) Nearly 30 people have been detained in the wake of Saturday's protests in Hong Kong, which at times turned violent, the police of China's semi-autonomous city said on Sunday.
On Saturday, demonstrators gathered for an authorized rally in the city's Kwun Tong district. Later, "some radical protestors," according to the police, deviated from the original route. There were also reports about demonstrators building barricades, obstructing traffic, damaging lampposts and hurling hard objects at police officers. To disperse the crowd, the police fired tear gas and sponge rounds, media reported.
"During the operation, Police arrested 19 men and 10 women, aged 17 to 52, for offences including unlawful assembly, possession of offensive weapon and assaulting police officers," the police said in a statement.
The police also noted that during the dispersal of the demonstrators, they used "appropriate force to stop the violent acts by protestors."
The mass protests in Hong Kong initially started in early June as a reaction to proposed amendments to the city's extradition laws but over the months have grown into a full-blown opposition movement, demanding not only the full withdrawal of the controversial initiative, but also resignation of Chief Executive Carrie Lam, retraction of the government's classification of the violent clashes as riots, independent inquiry into the police's actions, release of all those arrested in the clashes with the police.
