Security law: hundreds demonstrate, police attack with gas

Due to the pandemic emergency, any rally with more than 8 people is considered illegal. One protester: "It is better to be arrested than to keep silent." Policemen armed with rifles, pepper spray, armored trucks and water chydrants.

Hong Kong (AsiaNew) - Hundreds of people, many of them young, demonstrated in the early afternoon in Causeway Bay, in the center of the island of Hong Kong, to express their opposition to the security law, announced by Beijing three days ago.

At least 100 policemen, in riot gear, attempted to disperse the crowd with signs and calling out on megaphones, warning against the illegal rally; then they resorted to firing in them with tear gas and pepper spray. According to some present, the police did not give any warning before the attack.

Due to the Covid-19 epidemic, demonstrations and rallies with more than eight people are prohibited in the area. Already yesterday, law enforcement agencies had warned that any rally would be considered illegal.

Some protesters told the media that "the security law is a very serious fact and it is better to be arrested than to keep silent".

For the majority of the population of Hong Kong, the security law - which will be imposed by China on the territory - would be the end of the "one country, two systems" experience, which so far has allowed Hong Kong to have a liberal lifestyle, different from the dictatorial style of the motherland.

From the early morning, the police with armored trucks and hydrants had lined up around the Liaison Office for relations between China and Hong Kong. Mixed among them were plainclothes policemen - possibly from popular China - who wore no identification.

In the early afternoon the policemen, with weapons, hydrants and trucks, moved to Causeway Bay.

Photo: Guardians of Hong Kong