Hong Kong police arrested 249 people involved in violent incidents from Monday to Thursday night, and seized, for the first time, compressed gas fuel explosives.

Kong Wing-cheung, Senior Superintendent of the Police Public Relations Branch, said during a press conference Friday that 175 men and 74 women, aged 13 to 61 years old, were arrested for offenses including illegal assembly, possession of offensive weapons, attacking police, concealing their faces during an unauthorized assembly, etc.

According to the police statement on Thursday, rioters gathered in Mong Kok and escalated their violence on Thursday night by building barricades and setting them on fire on Dundas Street and Nathan Road in Mong Kok. A fire engine was summoned to the scene but was once obstructed by rioters and could not advance.

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Tse Chun-chung, chief superintendent of the Hong Kong police public relations branch, told media that at around 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, police officers found a vehicle unload several compressed gas fuel explosives wrapped in aluminum foil bags on the Lai Chi Kok Road, warning that the explosives would not only hurt police officers, but also threaten the lives of other people nearby if they exploded.

This is the first time that police find compressed gas fuel explosives, the officer noted.

Click to review the live  press conference.

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