Passengers with bleeding head wounds emerge from a train and are bandaged by medics. Rows of people are lined against a wall on the concourse to have their hands bound with cable ties. Medics are also forced to face the wall. Then the shutters come down, police evict medics and journalists. These scenes, at MTR stations at Prince Edward and Yau Ma Tei around 10pm on Saturday evening, dominated Hong Kongers conversations the next day. The subway stations remained closed. People said they were horrified. MTR stations are middle class Hong Kong’s hallowed ground - efficient, clean, safe. Shopping malls and apartments tower above many stations. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video On the opposite side of Hong Kong’s harbour, a mass protest by tens of thousands of democracy activists had descended into clashes with police earlier in the evening, as petrol bombs were thrown at a government office and police deployed water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets to clear the streets. Hong Kong lawyer and commentator Kevin Yam says each weekend seems to provide a more likely excuse for Carrie Lam to enact emergency legislation, as the government not only fails to stop street protests but more importantly loses the battle for the Hong Kong public’s hearts and minds.

"If we look back over the escalation of violence in the last month there is one consistent pattern - when there is a hardcore of protesters that go a little bit too far with their actions, the police always respond with action that goes way further than the protesters.” "Every time the police squander the opportunity for the government to turn public opinion around.” Police attempt to arrest protesters at Prince Edward Station in Hong Kong. Credit:AP Yam, who is a former head of the Hong Kong Progressive Lawyers Group and grew up in Melbourne, says the government tactics in the past three days - arresting opposition party politicians and high profile youth activist Joshua Wong, cancelling authorised protests, and the storming of the subway stations - appeared to be an attempt to “arrest people into submission”. The police force said on Sunday that 40 people had been arrested at Prince Edward station alone.

Loading But Yam said that tactic backfires in an environment like Hong Kong where there is a free flow of information and the public can see in detail how police are dealing with protesters. As the footage of police using batons to hit protesters inside multiple subway stations, chasing passengers inside train carriages with pepper spray, was shown on live video streams on television and the internet on Saturday, the reaction on social media was shock. Police said the next day the images of passengers - not wearing black - being hit with batons could be explained by them possibly being protesters who had changed into plain clothes. There was no proof of this. Pro-democracy politician Claudia Mo said on Sunday: “It was blatantly clear through press footage and photos, yet police would still dare to deny that such happenings have ever taken place, that the police were beating up ordinary citizens most indiscriminately.”

Charles Mok, the Legislative Councillor representing the technology sector, called the police “thugs” on social media and warned “the situation is very urgent and dangerous”. Mok has strongly urged Lam’s government not to use emergency laws and internet companies have warned any attempt to curb internet use through such a law would threaten Hong Kong’s role as a financial hub. With Lam refusing to respond to protesters' demands with even the simplest action - formally withdrawing an extradition bill she has said won’t proceed - the cycle of violence in Hong Kong appears set to worsen. When asked if she supported the use of Molotov cocktails, one protester told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age the crude bombs were being thrown because police continued to act with violence. Saturday showed the wider public continues to turn up on the streets to support the protesters.