Hong Kong Police Take Back Crucial Artery in Quick March (+Photos)

HONG KONG—Hundreds of police officers descended on a recently occupied road and tunnel here, tearing through barriers and meleeing with pro-democracy protesters, until they had forced the crowd back to the position it had occupied this afternoon.
Hong Kong Police Take Back Crucial Artery in Quick March (+Photos)
Police start to beat pro-democracy protesters after they successfully shutdown Lung Wo Road, one of the major roadways in Hong Kong, on Oct. 14, 2014. Benjamin Chasteen/Epoch Times
Matthew Robertson
Updated:

HONG KONG—Hundreds of police officers descended on a recently occupied road and tunnel here, tearing through barriers and meleeing with pro-democracy protesters, until they had forced the crowd back to the position it had occupied this afternoon. 

The action was a stern and swift reprisal to the seizure, just hours previously, of a crucial road that connects Hong Kong island with the broader Hong Kong city, including Kowloon and the mainland. Police weapons of choice included bolt cutters, screams, shields, pepper spray, and swinging batons.

The point of confrontation moved to Lung Wo road late in the evening on Tuesday, as protesters launched a surprise attack and set up obstructions, in reprisal against police removing them from the other key highway known as Queensway on Tuesday morning. 

Then, at about 3 a.m., police swooped in.

Police start to beat pro-democracy protesters after they successfully shutdown Lung Wo Road, one of the major roadways in Hong Kong, on Oct. 14, 2014.
Police start to beat pro-democracy protesters after they successfully shutdown Lung Wo Road, one of the major roadways in Hong Kong, on Oct. 14, 2014.
Matthew Robertson
Matthew Robertson
Author
Matthew Robertson is the former China news editor for The Epoch Times. He was previously a reporter for the newspaper in Washington, D.C. In 2013 he was awarded the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi award for coverage of the Chinese regime's forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience.
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