HONG KONG, (Reuters) – Hong Kong police used pepper spray early today to stop pro-democracy protesters from blocking a major road near the office of the city’s embattled leader amid public anger over the police beating of a protester a day earlier.
At police headquarters in the nearby district of Wan Chai, hundreds of people gathered outside into the early hours of the morning to express outrage at the beating, with dozens queuing to lodge formal complaints over the incident.
Authorities yesterday said police involved in the beating of Ken Tsang Kin-chiu, a member of the pro-democracy Civic Party, would be suspended.
Footage of the beating has gone viral and injected fresh momentum into a protest movement that had been flagging after nearly three weeks of demonstrations over Chinese restrictions on how Hong Kong will choose its next leader.
In the latest confrontation, Hong Kong’s public broadcaster RTHK said protesters rushed onto Lung Wo road next to the office of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, dragging plastic barriers and other objects with them. A Reuters photographer saw protesters later scuffling with a small group of police on the side of the road. Police repelled them using pepper spray.
Protesters caught police by surprise 24 hours earlier, erecting makeshift barricades to block the thoroughfare, prompting police to move in and arrest 45 people and clear the road. Traffic chaos at other protest sites in the city has severely disrupted some parts of the Asian financial hub.
