Hong Kong activists, police clash over holiday food stalls

Around 44 police officers were injured, and some have been left in comas, according to reports.

Reporter: Mr Leung, what would be the direct reason behind the escalating chaos scenes in Hong Kong? Hong Kong’s police commissioner, Stephen Lo, said police are justified in firing shots when there was “no alternative”. A few hundred mobs attacked police officers and the media in Mong Kok.

Police also fired two warning shots during the clashes, police spokesman, Deputy Mong Kok District Commander Crusade Yau Siu-kei told the SCMP.

The violence is the worst Hong Kong has seen since pro-democracy protests rocked the city in 2014, leaving a growing gap of trust between the public and authorities.

Yau said two warning shots were fired. At least four journalists have also been hurt in the unrest. They dug out bricks from the sidewalks to hurl at police.

That 2014 movement, also known as the “Umbrella Revolution” saw tens of thousands of protesters, many of whom were students, taking to Hong Kong’s streets – including in Mong Kok – for 11 weeks in 2014 to protest what many saw as a declaration denying this semi-autonomous city’s freedoms by Beijing.

Trouble first flared late on Monday after authorities attempted to clear illegal hawkers and street vendors in gritty Mong Kok during festivities marking the start of the Chinese New Year. The hawkers have become a local tradition during the Lunar New Year, but this year, authorities tried to remove them.

Hong Kong police released a statement condemning the violence and defended its “resolute actions” in handling the chaotic scenes.

They damaged police cars and public properties, committed acts of arson, threw bricks and other objects at police officers, including those who had already been injured and were lying on the ground, seriously jeopardising the safety of police officers and other people at the site.

The latest scuffles underscore how tensions remain unresolved more than a year after the end of pro-democracy protests that gripped the city.