HONG KONG (REUTERS, AFP) - Hong Kong protesters on Saturday (Sept 7) night occupied roads and subway stations, resulting in clashes with police, after an earlier plan to disrupt airport operations was foiled by a heavy police presence.

At least four MTR stations - Prince Edward, Mong Kok, Sha Tin and Tseung Kwan O - across the city were shut after protesters flooded the concourses, damaging ticketing machines, turnstiles and vandalising the station.

Clashes between pepper-spray touting police and protesters at Sha Tin resulted in chaotic scenes, and journalists were told to leave the station before it was shuttered. Outside Tseung Kwang O station, scuffles broke out past midnight between protesters and an older man who had shouted at them in Mandarin. It is unclear why the station was shut.

Earlier in the evening, hundreds occupied roads close to the Prince Edward subway station in Kowloon, which had been shut for the day after many had gathered at a makeshift memorial outside, where they built barricades on major thoroughfares. The group also shone strong lasers into the Mong Kok Police Station, the site of clashes between police and protesters the night before.

At about 8.45pm, protesters torched a makeshift barricade, setting off a roaring blaze that was quickly put out by nearby firefighters. They quickly dispersed as police formed up on nearby streets.

Teams of police dressed in riot gear marched down an empty Nathan Road as hundreds of people stood around looking on curiously. Some heckled the officers, shouting "hak geng", or "black cops", a reference to allegations of police being in cahoots with triads.

As officers conducted clearance operations, the rail operator also shut Mong Kok station, a busy station that serves one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

After a game of cat and mouse, protesters returned to the police station and the nearby police recreation club, where they continued shining laser pens at officers standing guard.

Protesters last week caused chaos at the airport and the nearby satellite town of Tung Chung by blocking airport approach roads and trashing the MTR station. But stepped up security measures prevented a repeat.

Police checked people travelling to the city’s international airport for passports and air tickets, preventing protesters gathering for another “stress test” of road and rail links in the Chinese-ruled city.

The Airport Express train service ran from the station in downtown Hong Kong direct to the airport, skipping all stations in-between and only those with flight tickets can enter the terminals, airport officials said.

​“We’re a bit nervous seeing all these police. We’ve been watching the fighting on the television and we don’t want to be part of that,” said Mr Kurt Cruzat, a 20-year-old Filipino student on his way to study in Israel. “I’ll be happy once we’re on the plane.”

But in the late afternoon, there was a standoff between riot police and residents at Tung Chung, a satellite town close to the airport, after police showed up to disperse protesters gathered there. Protesters quickly scattered but residents continued to heckle the officers, dressed in riot gear and armed with long shields, until they retreated at close to 6.30pm.

Some took their protests to shopping malls, where dozens of protesters staged sit-ins while more continued to "window shop", local TV footage showed.



Riot police detain protesters near Tung Chung station, in Hong Kong, on Sept 7, 2019. PHOTO: REUTERS



Crowds also gathered outside the Prince Edward MTR station close to Mong Kok, prompting the rail operator to shut the station.

Three months of sometimes violent protests have at times paralysed parts of the city, a major Asian financial hub, amid running street battles between protesters and police who have responded with tear gas, pepper spray and water cannon. Violent arrests of protesters have drawn international attention.

Police on Saturday searched bags of people on buses and trains headed to the airport where police and press outnumbered passengers. They told about 100 youngsters congregating around the airport bus terminal to leave.



Riot police is seen near Tung Chung station, in Hong Kong, on Sept 7, 2019. PHOTO: REUTERS



There were shouting matches outside the airport between police and people who wanted to pick up arriving family members but were told to go away.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous. We have our 80-year-old relative coming off the flight. How will she get home without our help?” said Donny, only giving his first name. “These police don’t listen to anything we have to say. We are normal people.”

Hundreds of demonstrators, many masked and dressed in black, attacked MTR metro stations on the Kowloon peninsula on Friday (Sept 6) night, targeted because of televised scenes of police beating protesters on a metro train on Aug 31 as they cowered on the floor.

Activists, angry that the MTR closed stations to stop protesters from gathering and demanding CCTV footage of the beatings, tore down signs, broke turnstiles, set fires on the street and daubed graffiti on the walls.

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Millions of pro-democracy supporters have taken to Hong Kong's streets for the past three months in the biggest challenge to China's rule since the city's handover from Britain in 1997.

On Wednesday, the city's unelected pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam surprised many by announcing she was scrapping a hugely unpopular extradition law that sparked the huge and sometimes violent rallies, a key demand of protesters that she and Beijing had previously refused to budge on.

She portrayed the move as a bid to de-escalate tensions and start a dialogue.

But it has been widely dismissed by protesters as too little, too late after 1,100 arrests and many facing lengthy jail sentences.

Online messaging forums used by the largely leaderless movement have called for protesters to "stress test" the airport on Saturday afternoon, filling up with suggestions for how to disrupt the road and rail links leading to the terminals.

TRAVEL CHAOS

In recent weeks the airport - the world's eighth busiest - has become a repeated target of pro-democracy protesters as they try to ramp up pressure on Beijing and city leaders by denting Hong Kong's reputation as a stable business hub.

But the tactic is controversial because of the travel misery it causes - and the fact that the target is not the state but ordinary people.

Last month hundreds of flights were cancelled over two days when huge crowds of protesters staged a sit-in at the airport, with ugly scenes as two men suspected of being Chinese spies were beaten.

Since then security has been ramped up around the sprawling hub - which lies on an artificial island west of the main city - and access to the terminals has been restricted to those with boarding passes.

But last Sunday, protesters returned to the airport and showed they could still wreak havoc.

Operators of the Airport Express train suspended services after the station was besieged, while black-clad protesters built barricades at the bus terminus and attempted to stop traffic on the main road leading to the facility.

Stranded travellers were forced to abandon their lifts and drag their luggage along the airport road.

Protesters have said their movement will only end when other key demands are met such as an amnesty for those arrested, an inquiry into the police and universal suffrage, all of which Mrs Lam and Beijing have rejected.

At a peaceful rally on Friday night in the city's commercial district, many protesters said they planned to continue hitting the streets.

"It's too late now, in these three months, a lot of people have sacrificed themselves and been arrested," said a retiree who gave his surname Cheng, bursting into tears as he spoke.