HONG KONG: Petrol bombs were thrown inside a Hong Kong metro station on Saturday (Oct 12) but no one was injured, the government said, as protesters again took to the streets angry at what they believe is Beijing's tightening grip on the city.
The Kowloon Tong station was seriously damaged in the attack, the government said in a statement.
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"Police warn the rioters to stop all illegal acts immediately. We express condemnation against all violent acts and will investigate into the case thoroughly," the government said in a statement.
Kowloon Tong metro station. (Photo: Google Maps)
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Hundreds of protesters, many young and wearing face masks, were marching in Kowloon at the time and were headed to a district near the Kowloon Tong station.
About a dozen riot police took to the streets in Kowloon's Tsim Sha Tsui district, normally a haven for local and international shoppers, behind the marchers shortly after news of the petrol bomb attack.
Protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks attend an anti-emergency law march in the Tsim Sha Tsui district in Hong Kong on Oct 12, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Philip Fong)
Hong Kong's metro has borne the brunt of protests, with stations torched and trashed, and only returned to normal operations on Friday after being completely shut down.
The metro normally carries around 5 million people a day.
Metro operator MTR said services would end at 10pm on Saturday and the express train linking the airport with the city would not stop at stations in between from 3pm.
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Hong Kong's protests started in opposition to a now-abandoned extradition bill but have mushroomed in four months into an outlet for anger at social inequality in the Asian financial hub.
The protests have plunged the city into its worst crisis since Britain handed it back to China in 1997 and is the biggest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012.
Hong Kong had experienced relative calm since last weekend, when a peaceful march by tens of thousands spiralled into a night of running battles between protesters and police.
Since then there had only been small nightly protests and activists had not flagged any major action this weekend.
"DEFEND THE FUTURE"
A small group calling itself the "Silver-Haired Marchers" began a 48-hour sit-in at police headquarters on Saturday, describing themselves as "old but not obsolete".
"Whilst we may not be able to fight alongside the young protesters in the frontline against an unjust government, escalating police violence and indiscriminate arrests, we take it to heart to uphold the core values of Hong Kong and defend the future of our younger generations," it said in a statement.
