In the biggest clashes to rock the city for decades, anti- riot police wearing gas-masks and carrying batons and guns repeatedly skirmished with demonstrators who used face masks, goggles, plastic wrap and umbrellas to protect themselves. Crowds thronged central Hong Kong to support a student-led protest that entered a fourth day to oppose China's plans to control the city's 2017 leadership election.
Many ignored calls by some organizers to pull back at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday night, with thousands remaining at 3.30 a.m. Sunday. Some moved metal barriers to create barricades across major roads into the Central business district, while others slept or sat using their phones as the previously heavy police presence thinned. New protests sprung up overnight in the Causeway Bay and Mongkok shopping districts, where hundreds of people obstructed traffic.
"This is a sad day for Hong Kong," Anson Chan, Hong Kong's former No. 2 official, said in a statement. "Pictures of our police force firing pepper spray and tear gas into the faces of unarmed protestors will shame our government in front of the whole world."
Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying urged protesters to disperse for the stability of the city, dismissing rumors that police had opened fire or that the government planned to call in the People's Liberation Army, which the Chinese government used to crush the student-led Tiananmen Square pro- democracy protests in Beijing in 1989. The PLA has garrisons in Hong Kong but is rarely seen on the streets.
"Hong Kong's stable development for so long has depended on everyone's abiding by peace and respecting the law," Leung said in a televised speech at 1 a.m. "We don't want Hong Kong to be chaotic or for people's daily lives to be affected."
The protests threaten to disrupt one of the world's most vibrant financial centers and a gateway to investment in China. More than half the companies on Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index are from the mainland, driving the city's $3.7 trillion stock market, the fifth-largest worldwide.
Thirty-four people were injured as of 11:45 p.m. Saturday night, the city's hospital authority said. Police said they arrested 78 people for offenses including forcible entry into government premises, unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct, and obstructing police officers.
"Heavy-handed approaches to the students will surely backfire," said Michael Davis, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong. "Hong Kong people have proven time and time again that if the government handles public concerns badly, the public will mobilize against them."
Leung, who has ignored demands by students for a meeting to discuss the issue, earlier told a press briefing he was resolute in opposition to the protesters, while urging everyone to get behind political reforms so that Hong Kong's next leader will be elected by universal suffrage.
Student federations and activist group Occupy Central With Love and Peace said Saturday that the best way to diffuse the protests would be for Leung to resign. They say that China is reneging on its promise to maintain the city's autonomy under its "one country, two systems" agreed when British colonial rule ended 17 years ago.
Protests were spurred by the Chinese government's decision last month that candidates for the 2017 election of chief executive, the city's leader, be vetted by a committee. The pro- democracy forces say the system is designed to produce a new leader effectively handpicked by the government in Beijing.
Tensions escalated after police began lobbing tear gas into the crowds just before 6 p.m. Saturday and clashes continued into the night.
As the crowds began to swell Saturday and push against barricades, police held up warning signs saying "Disperse or We Fire." The police first threw tear-gas cannisters at crowds in the Admiralty district, outside Leung's office.
In a scene that was frequently repeated over the next eight hours, protesters briefly scattered as acrid smoke filled the air before regrouping. Demonstrators also spread to both the east and the west of the initial protest after the Admiralty subway station was closed.
Hundreds formed human chains to ferry water, umbrellas and other supplies to protesters on the front-line.
Hugo Tam, 24 and wearing a blue England soccer jersey, was carrying a box of masks he said his mother bought.
"She told me to come here and support the people," he said. "They have been here so long their supplies must be running low."
Eason Chung, secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students that led the initial rally, said people could "preserve their strength and retreat," while he welcomed anyone wanting to continue the action.
The clashes were the biggest since unrest swept the city in the 1960s led by pro-Communist groups inspired by Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution.
The violence capped protests initiated by student groups on Sept. 26 that gained momentum over the weekend.
Swelling crowds prompted protest movement Occupy Central with Peace and Love to bring forward its plans for a mass sit-in aimed at paralyzing the business district. Occupy initially had signaled it would hold its protest on Oct. 1, a holiday marking China's National Day, before changing course after thousands took to the streets to support the student-led demonstrations outside the main government building.
Three student leaders, who were arrested at the start of the protests were released from jail Saturday, according to Michael Vidler, the lawyer for 17-year-old Joshua Wong.
Wong, who escalated protests when he urged demonstrators to climb the gates of the government headquarters, was ordered released by a judge who ruled that his detention was unlawful, Vidler said.
The protests also coincide with the start of Golden Week, a week-long holiday in China, when hundreds of thousands of people from the mainland travel to Hong Kong. They provide an annual boost to sales of luxury brands such as Prada, Louis Vuitton and Patek Philippe. More than 54 million people visited the city last year, almost eight times the population, with mainland tourists accounting for about 75 percent of the total.
Leung signaled Saturday that the protests would not lead the Chinese government to compromise on its plans for the vote.
The National People's Congress Standing Committee of the Communist Party's decision on the election procedure was made "after detailed and careful deliberation of the actual situation of Hong Kong and the views of various sectors of the community. It is legally binding."
All schools will be closed in two districts on Hong Kong island Sunday due to transport disruptions, the government said in a statement.
Hong Kong's Professional Teachers' Union called on members to strike Sunday, condemning the "government and police's insane behavior" against the protesters. A student boycott of classes that started Sept. 22 will be extended indefinitely, the Federation of Students said.
"We can take further action, so we call on Hong Kong students to boycott classes, workers to boycott work, and business people to boycott the market," lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan said earlier Sunday.
--With assistance from David Tweed, Janet Ong, Richard Frost and Clement Tan in Hong Kong.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Michelle Yun in Hong Kong at myun11@bloomberg.net; Fion Li in Hong Kong at fli59@bloomberg.net; Billy Chan in Hong Kong at bchan101@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tan Hwee Ann at hatan@bloomberg.net Neil Western, Richard Frost
