Pepper spray and arrests as Hong Kong riot police stage ‘rescue’ during airport sit-in protest

By Jennifer Creery, Tom Grundy, Holmes Chan & Kris Cheng

Chaotic scenes broke out at the entrance of Hong Kong International Airport on Tuesday night as police attempted to escort a man out of the departures hall who had been surrounded by protesters. The clashes came during a mass occupation protest that earlier brought flights to a halt.

For over three hours, the man was surrounded by protesters in Terminal 1 after they accused of being an undercover agent from mainland China.

Suspicions were raised after a message on Telegram messenger was shared that appeared to identify him as a public security officer – a charge he denied.

He was chased down and briefly attacked as several airport security officers sought to protect him.

Paramedics arrived to treat him after he appeared to faint at 10pm but were unable to take him away from angry crowds who demanded to see identification and the contents of his phone.

The man claimed he was simply seeing friends off at the airport.

The man was surrounded by three security officers, a ring of media and hundreds of protesters, who demanded to see the contents of his phone. As he tried to leave, the crowd pushed and jeered, as the peaceful sit-in continued nearby. #HongKong #China #antiELABhk #antiELAB pic.twitter.com/yVfNj7Qdty — Hong Kong Free Press (@HongKongFP) August 13, 2019

At around 11pm, a police press release stated that the force wished to escort the man from the scene: “Police stress that this is not an operation to disperse those assembled but is for extricating the visitor safely.”

As they arrived on shortly afterwards, officers used pepper spray to push back hostile crowds.

Police officer had his baton taken from him and was attacked with it. Drew his pistol and aimed at protesters. Astonished nobody killed here tonight. pic.twitter.com/Wox8yziDnz — Mike Bird (@Birdyword) August 13, 2019

One officer pulled out his service revolver and pointed it at protesters after being attacked.

Several protesters tried to prevent police vehicles from leaving the scene, throwing trolleys into the road, damaging the cars and hurling abuse at officers.

Backup arrived shortly afterwards as Police Tactical Unit officers made several arrests.

During the ensuing clashes, riot police & tactical unit officers beat back protesters with batons & pepper spray as protesters barricaded the airport entrances with trolleys. https://t.co/AdXomXEpsi #HongKong #China #antiELABhk #antiELAB pic.twitter.com/kWv4UkIihb — Hong Kong Free Press (@HongKongFP) August 13, 2019

Multiple people were injured in the scuffles as demonstrators barricaded the entrances to the departures terminal.

As police retreated, protesters surrounded a second man wearing a yellow vest at around 11:47pm, accusing him of pretending to be a journalist.

The man, thought to be from China, had his bag searched by protesters who found an “I love police” t-shirt, name cards from police officers, and a Global Times reporter identification card.

Demonstrators used plastic zip ties to bind the man’s hands together and prevent him from moving. He was taken away in an ambulance at around 12:20am after appearing to faint.

The days-long airport sit-in against the police use of force led to the cancellation of flights on Monday and Tuesday.

All check-in services for departing flights were suspended at around 3pm on Tuesday.

Tense scenes erupted as protesters prevented some travellers from boarding their flights, blocking their paths with luggage trollies.

Thousands remained at the airport as the final express train left the local station shortly before 1am. Several groups told HKFP that they may return on Wednesday.