Anthony Wallace, AFP | Protesters demonstrate in the district of Yuen Long in Hong Kong on July 27, 2019.

Police fired tear gas during clashes in a rural Hong Kong town on Saturday as several thousand activists gathered to protest an attack by suspected triad gang members on protesters and commuters at a train station last weekend.

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Police, widely criticised for failing to better protect the public from the attack by club-wielding men in Yuen Long, had refused to allow the march in the town on safety grounds

But protesters pushed ahead and what began as a peaceful action by several thousand in sweltering afternoon heat soon grew increasingly tense with stand-offs between police and protesters in several locations.

Rocks and bottles were thrown at police by protesters, who were also building barricades out of street furniture. Police responded in at least one location with tear gas.

VIDEO: 🇭🇰 Hong Kong police fire tear gas at protesters holding a banned rally in the town of #YuenLong against suspected triad gangs who beat up pro-democracy demonstrators near the Chinese border last weekend, tipping the finance hub further into chaos. pic.twitter.com/tBei4scM3a AFP news agency (@AFP) July 27, 2019

'Hong Kongers won't cower in fear'

Social messaging channels were used to organise the largely leaderless movement and quickly filled up with calls for people to have a "shopping spree" in Yuen Long or play the popular mobile game Pokemon Go there.

"Everyone of us came here on our own initiation," a 25-year-old medical worker surnamed Ng told AFP. "So I don't think this is an illegal assembly, I've just come here as an individual to tell people my thoughts."

Another woman, surnamed Cheung, said she wanted to show "we are not afraid and that Hong Kongers won't cower in fear".

"The police and (the government) are together suppressing people's freedom to express their views," she added.

"They failed the public," a protester called Kevin, in a red T-shirt, said of the police earlier in the afternoon, as he stood outside the police station, gripping its gates.

"They deliberately let the triads beat up protesters to get revenge on us ... We're here to teach them a lesson," he said, as he shouted an obscenity at the police

Last Sunday, about 100 white-shirted men stormed the Yuen Long mass-transit station hours after protesters marched through central Hong Kong and defaced China's Liaison Office - the main symbol of Beijing's authority over the former British colony.

The men attacked black-clad protesters returning from Hong Kong island, passers-by, journalists and lawmakers with pipes and clubs, leaving 45 people injured.

Reuters reported on Friday that a Liaison Office official had days earlier urged village chiefs to drive away any activists from the town.

The Yuen Long attack and the vandalism at the Liaison Office marked new fronts in a protest movement that has intensified over the last two months.

Protests intensify

The protests, considered the most direct challenge to the authority of China's President Xi Jinping, mushroomed on Friday as thousands of activists thronged the arrivals halls of Hong Kong international airport

The protesters, initially demanding the scrapping of a bill that would have allowed people to be sent to mainland courts for trial, are now also seeking independent inquiries into police use of force, the resignation of Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and full democratic reform - anathema to Beijing's Communist Party leadership.

EN NW PKG HONG KONG PROTESTS TIMELINE

Fears ahead of Saturday's protest

The crisis is exposing fissures in Lam's administration, with police chiefs and rank-and-file officers enraged at an apology over last weekend's attacks by her chief secretary on Friday, apparently made without consultation.

The official, Matthew Cheung, said the government would not shirk its responsibility "and the police's handling fell short of residents' expectations".

Britain handed Hong Kong to China in 1997 amid guarantees that its core freedoms and autonomy, including the right to protest and an independent judiciary, would be protected under a "one country, two systems" formula.

Many fear those rights are under threat as Beijing's reach extends into the city.

Activists feared Saturday's protest could turn violent, given anger among the protesters over last Sunday's violence and a determination among some to challenge villagers they believe are close to triad groups in the area.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)

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