Police in Hong Kong Sunday fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters who joined an unsanctioned pro-democracy march, in the latest political unrest gripping the city.
Television images showed riot police launching multiple volleys of tear gas at protesters who had set up barricades close to the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Thousands of pro-democracy protesters, as they have done for weeks, marched in central Hong Kong Sunday, demanding the resignation of Hong Kong’s leader and an investigation into police use of force against demonstrators.
This week’s demonstration on Sunday, however, was different. Police banned the activists, limiting then to Chater Garden, an urban park in the financial district. Police denied a request to march about two kilometers west to Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park.
The protesters quickly spilled over from Chater Garden and marched into the surrounding, unsanctioned areas of Hong Kong, a move that could result in arrests.
Clashes with the police Saturday led to 11 arrests and left at least two dozen injured in an outlying district toward the border with mainland China.
The police said Sunday they have arrested the organizer of Saturday’s march.
Hong Kong is facing its worst political crisis since its handover to China in 1997. After millions of people marched twice in June against an extradition bill, now suspended, that would have permitted criminal suspects to be sent to China, many residents turned their ire on the police.
The police force has used tear gas and rubber bullets twice against protesters who defied police orders. Clashes have left scores injured.