HONG KONG — A subway train derailed in Hong Kong on Tuesday, injuring at least five passengers and snarling the morning rush-hour commute in a city whose transit system has been routinely disrupted by three months of pro-democracy protests.

One man and four women were hospitalized after the accident near a major station on the city’s Kowloon Peninsula, a government spokesman said. The Fire Services Department said their injuries included light scratches and neck and shoulder injuries.

Such accidents are exceedingly rare in Hong Kong, and there was no indication that the crash was related to the protests that have prompted the former British colony’s worst political crisis since it was handed back to Chinese control in 1997. But the accident nevertheless stirred initial concerns that it was linked to the unrest.

The crash comes after an especially violent weekend of street clashes, in which the Hong Kong police fired tear gas and water cannons after protesters vandalized a subway station and attacked government offices with bricks and gasoline bombs.