Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government Saturday strongly condemned rioters for going on a rampage in Causeway Bay, Wan Chai, Central and Tsim Sha Tsui, seriously breaching the public peace.
In a statement, the government said that rioters triggered traffic jams beginning Saturday afternoon by using various objects to obstruct roads and block the Island Eastern Corridor.
Rioters also hurled petrol bombs and bricks, placed nails on roads and deliberately torched and vandalized shops, a media organization and MTR stations.
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The statement said with no regard to law and order, such outrageous acts deserve the strongest condemnation.
The HKSAR government expressed regret that some people ignored the Appeal Board on Public Meetings & Processions' decision and violated the law by deliberately taking part in an unlawful assembly in Victoria Park.
Hong Kong police arrest violent protesters
Hong Kong police are dispersing and arresting groups of protesters in multiple illegal gatherings in downtown Hong Kong on Saturday in defiance of repeated police warnings.
As of 1 a.m. Sunday, over 200 people have been arrested for offenses of unlawful assembly, possession of an offensive weapon, criminal damage, and using facial covering while at an illegal assembly, Hong Kong police said in a statement.
Besides, the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau arrested four men and a woman on Saturday for possession of offensive weapon.
In the operations, the police seized weapons including 188 petrol bombs, several extendable batons and pepper sprays.
The unauthorized rally, which was denied by police earlier this week for safety reasons, started in the afternoon at Victoria Park and soon turned violent as anti-government protesters fled to the Central Business District, setting fire on street barricades, shops and metro stations in various locations.
At around 5 p.m., a large group of rioters used umbrellas as cover and repeatedly threw petrol bombs and bricks at police officers and police vehicles at multiple locations on Hong Kong island.
At around 6 p.m., a masked rioter even threw feces at police officers on Nathan Road near Granville Road.
After night fell, violent clashes escalated between police and black-clad, masked radicals who were in blatant violation of the newly passed Prohibition on Face Covering Regulation.
Masked protesters set fire to an entrance of the Central MTR station, vandalized shops, and smashed glass walls with bricks at another, according to a police statement.
Police had repeatedly warned the crowd at the scene that they are committing the offence of "participating in an unauthorized assembly," before firing rounds of tear gas and telling them to stop their illegal acts immediately.
The police strongly condemned the rioters' violent and vandalistic acts which completely disregard law and order. "The continued vandalism is seriously affecting public order and people's daily living."
"Police reiterate that no violent behavior will be tolerated. Police will continue to take resolute enforcement action so as to safeguard the city's public safety and bring all lawbreakers to justice," the police said.
A common pattern
This has become a common pattern in some of the worst violence in months of unrest, as radical protesters resorted to more and more deadly weapons — hurling knives, bricks, hammers, metal poles, petrol bombs and firing slingshots at police.
One policeman was slashed in the neck with a knife last month.
The MTR has been another target of protesters' anger. Central station was closed on Saturday evening due to another round of violent protest.
TV footage also showed anti-government protesters repeatedly smashing glass windows of Bank of China branches and other Chinese businesses.
The protests have already had a negative impact on the city's economy, as government data on Thursday confirmed that Hong Kong slid into recession in the third quarter for the first time since the global financial crisis of 2008.
Elsewhere, in recent violence in Spain's Catalonia and the UK's capital London, protesters blockaded airports and smashed up shops, claiming they are "copying Hong Kong's riots." So far, some Western politicians and media have been silent on the protests compared with their broad coverage of the so-called "pro-democracy activities" in Hong Kong.