Hong Kong Protest Clashes Leave 20 Injured
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Hong Kong police clashed with protesters again, with the government saying 20 people were injured in a fourth night of violence after nearly three weeks of pro-democracy rallies.
Dozens of police with shields and helmets pushed into a crowd of protesters gathered at barricades in the shopping district of Mong Kok early on Sunday, striking at them repeatedly with batons.
Some demonstrators had to be carried away on stretchers and others were treated for head wounds, fractures and bruising, according to AFP reporters and medics at the scene.
Police said in a statement that they had used "minimum force" as protesters "suddenly attempted to charge" their cordon lines.
The city's government information service said 20 people involved in protest activities had been injured between 10pm and 6am, but would not specify how many were demonstrators or police, the extent of the injuries, or if they all took place in the Mong Kok area.
The mostly peaceful protests, triggered by a decision by Beijing to restrict the 2017 vote for the territory's leader, have at times drawn tens of thousands of people and cut off traffic.
The protesters want 2017 elections for a new leader to be fully democratic. Beijing, which took control of Hong Kong from the UK in 1997, is allowing only pre-approved candidates to stand.
