A Hong Kong police officer pepper-sprays a pro-democracy protester on Oct. 15, 2014, as police cleared a tunnel on Lung Wo Road.(Photo: Alex Ogle, AFP/Getty Images)




Hong Kong police clashed with democracy protesters early Wednesday as officers cleared a park encampment and a tunnel that demonstrators had blocked on a major road outside the city's government headquarters.


Dozens of demonstrators, mostly university students, were hauled away from the underpass on Lung Wo Road and in nearby Tamar Park as hundreds of police moved in before dawn ahead of the morning commute. Hours earlier, police used sledgehammers and chain saws to clear barricades from Queensway Road, reopening the main artery leading to the central financial district for the first time since the protests began two weeks.


"Absolute chaos reported in Tamar Park; protesters retreating as Hong Kong police advance, making arrests and firing pepper spray," one Twitter user posted to #OccupyHK.


An Agence France-Presse photographer captured an officer spraying the chemical directly into the face of a protester standing with his hands up. A second photo showed the protester with his hands over his eyes as he was led away.


CCTV America reported later Wednesday morning that protesters had reoccupied Lung Wo Road.



Police said they acted because the protesters were disrupting public order and gathering illegally.


Forty-five people -- 37 men and 8 women -- were arrested during the assault. Four officers were hurt by protesters kicking or hitting them with umbrellas, but none of those arrested were injured, police spokesman Tsui Wai-Hung told local television.


"I have to stress here that even though protesters raised their hands in their air it does not mean it was a peaceful protest," he said.


A video posted to YouTube, however, shows a protester being led away by plainclothes police who then punch and kick him away from the crowd.


Activists continue to occupy encampments in the Admiralty and Mong Kok districts.


The civil disobedience began Sept. 28 to oppose having a pro-Beijing committee screen candidates for the 2017 election for chief executive, the semiautonomous territory's first vote for its top leader.



Hong Kong police arrest pro-democracy protesters outside the central government offices before dawn on Oct. 15, 2014.(Photo: Philippe Lopez, AFP/Getty Images)




Protesters have also called on the current, Beijing-backed chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, to resign.


On Monday, Leung reiterated his refusal to step down, saying, "I will not resign, and I don't have to resign."


He hinted at the forthcoming police action while addressing reporters at an event in Guangzhou, southern China. He said authorities had handled the protests with a "huge degree of tolerance," but he would not say when police might move against demonstrators.


"We cannot let this situation continue in the long term," he said.


Protesters dispersed last week when the Hong Kong leadership agreed to meet with student leaders, but demonstrators returned to the streets Friday night after the government canceled the talks.


Beijing is growing increasingly impatient with the turmoil in the special administrative region, which was created in 1997 when Britain handed over its former colony and operates under the principle of "one country, two systems."


An editorial in Wednesday's edition of the state-run People's Daily rebuked the "attempts to rouse conflict and smear the image of the local government," declaring that the Occupy Central protesters are "doomed to fail," the official Xinhua news agency reported.


"Democracy must be based on the rule of law and it should never be hijacked as an excuse for 'unchecked behavior,'" Xinhua writes about the commentary.


The article defends the Hong Kong police's "lawful efforts" against "some people who disrupted social order, disabled traffic and harmed people's livelihoods during the protests." The piece emphasized that the rule of law is "the greatest public benefit."


The veiled warning comes as the Chinese leadership announced that the "rule of law" will be the central theme at the all-important meeting of the Communist Party's Central Committee, which begins next week.






Police armed with bolt cutters, electric saws and sledgehammers make a renewed attempt to remove barricades along a stretch of the main protest site held by pro-democracy demonstrators for the past fortnight. (Video provided by AFP) Newslook




Contributing: Associated Press



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