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Police were hard-pressed to keep order as the two sides tussled in a tense standoff. The visibly older people trying to force the vastly outnumbered protesters out were yelling, shoving and at times trying to drag the younger protesters away.

The democracy activists linked arms and held hands as they tried to stand their ground against the huge crowd.

Police formed cordons and escorted some of the protesters away as hundreds of onlookers chanted, “Go home!”

“I would like to appeal to members of the public that they should observe the laws of Hong Kong when they are expressing their views,” police spokesman Steve Hui said when asked about the confrontation in Mong Kok, a working class area far from the main protest site in downtown Hong Kong, the Admiralty area near the territory’s government headquarters.

The coalition of student groups leading the protests said in a statement they would break off negotiations they were offered last night by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying “if the government does not immediately prevent the organized attacks on supporters of the Occupy movement.” Benny Tai, founder of the Occupy Central with Love and Peace protests group, called for demonstrators to leave Mong Kok for the Admiralty district, the focal point of the demonstrations.

“If their demonstration was in Victoria Park or anywhere else where it didn’t cause a traffic jam, I would support them,” said business owner James Miu, who directed a group of men dismantling a roadblock in Causeway Bay. “The police can do nothing, so we did this. Just seven of us. We are not police, we are just citizens. I worry about my staff.”