Protestors hurl petrol bombs and smash pro-Beijing businesses as crowds descend on luxury shopping area

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Hong Kong police have fired water cannon and tear gas at crowds holinding an illegal march, with hardcore protesters throwing petrol bombs and trashing businesses to cap a week of anger after recent attacks on pro-democracy demonstrators.

Authorities had forbidden Sunday’s rally in Tsim Sha Tsui, a densely-packed shopping district filled with luxury boutiques and hotels, citing public safety and previous violence from hardcore protesters.

But tens of thousands joined the unsanctioned demonstration, keeping pressure on the city’s pro-Beijing leaders after nearly five months of protests and political unrest.

In a familiar pattern, the huge rally began peacefully.

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But it soon descended into chaos as smaller groups of protesters hurled petrol bombs at police, subway entrances and at Chinese mainland bank branches, and vandalised multiple shops.

Police responded with volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets, and baton charges.

Throughout the afternoon, a water cannon truck chased protesters down Nathan Road, one of the city’s busiest shopping thoroughfares, leaving it streaked with blue dye.

The dye in the water, used to identify protesters, also contains a painful pepper solution.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Blue dye liquid was used in water cannon near Tsim Sha Tsui district during the demonstration in Hong Kong Sunday. Photograph: Keith Tsuji/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

The entrance to the city’s largest mosque was bathed in blue when the water cannon blasted a handful of people outside the building. Police said hitting the mosque was an accident and the city’s leader Carrie Lam later apologised.

As the protesters fled, frontliners stayed behind to slow the advance of riot police, setting fire to makeshift barricades. Clashes went on deep into the night.

A Xiaomi and a Best Mart store – both mainland Chinese businesses – were set alight.

Tensions were running high after the leader of the group organising the weekend rally, Jimmy Sham, was hospitalised after being attacked by unknown assailants wielding hammers earlier in the week.

Late on Saturday, a man handing out pro-democracy flyers was stabbed in the neck and stomach, reportedly by an assailant who shouted pro-Beijing slogans.

Many on Sunday’s march said they wanted to show they were unbowed by the attacks and moves by authorities to ban public gatherings.

“The more they suppress, the more we resist,” said a 69-year-old demonstrator, who gave her surname as Yeung. “Can police arrest us all, tens of thousands of people?”

Philip Tsoi, a self-described frontline protester, said they needed to keep getting numbers out even though many hardcore activists like him had been “arrested or wounded” in recent weeks.

“What I want is a truly democratic government whose leader is elected by Hong Kong people instead of selected by a Communist regime,” he said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Riot police fire teargas at the protesters on Nathan Road during the demonstration in Hong Kong on Sunday. Photograph: Keith Tsuji/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

Vigilante violence has mounted on both sides of the ideological divide.

In recent weeks pro-democracy supporters have badly beaten people who vocally disagree with them – although those fights tend to be spontaneous outbursts of mob anger during protests.

In contrast, pro-democracy figures have been attacked in a noticeably more targeted way, with at least eight prominent government critics, including politicians, beaten by unknown assailants since mid-August.

Protesters have labelled the attacks “white terror” and accused the city’s shadowy organised crime groups of forming an alliance with Beijing supporters.

Beijing has denounced the protests as a foreign-backed plot and condemned attacks on those voicing support for China.

But it has remained largely silent on the attacks carried out against pro-democracy figures.

Hong Kong has now been battered by 20 weeks of protests and with no political solution in sight, clashes have intensified each month.

Hardliners have embraced widespread vandalism, while riot police are quick to respond with tear gas, rubber bullets and, more recently, live rounds.

The rallies were triggered by a now-abandoned plan to allow extraditions to the authoritarian mainland, but have morphed into wider calls for democracy and police accountability.

Protesters are demanding an independent inquiry into the police, an amnesty for those arrested and fully free elections, all of which have been rejected by Beijing and Hong Kong’s unelected leader Carrie Lam.

Earlier this month, Lam invoked a colonial-era emergency law to ban face masks.

The decision set off a new wave of protests and vandalism that shut down much of the city’s transport network.