The number of protesters was far below the huge demonstrations last month, and Saturday evening’s events in Kowloon were driven largely by groups of a few hundred activists who roamed from area to area in an effort to avoid arrest for participation in an unauthorized gathering. After one group blocked a tunnel under the harbor from Kowloon to Central in the early evening, a different group occupied the entrance to the Lion Rock Tunnel, under a mountain in Kowloon.

The blocking of roads and tunnels recalled some of the disarray that convulsed Hong Kong on Monday, when a wave of protest rallies and strikes bought much of the city to a standstill, with the police and demonstrators clashing in several areas. Monday’s unrest prompted a barrage of warnings from the Communist Party in Beijing and its allies in Hong Kong that further unrest would not be tolerated.

On Saturday, party-controlled newspapers in Hong Kong published what they said was an open letter signed by more than 700 patriotic residents voicing support for the city’s police, whom protesters have accused of brutality, and demanding that the local government “swiftly stop this chaotic situation.”