HK demonstrators arrested

Group of protesters smash doors of legislature

Six people were arrested by police in Hong Kong Wednesday after a group of protesters broke into a government legislature building, shattering glass panes in the main door with bricks and metal barriers, hours after bailiffs and police cleared one of the main protest sites in the city's Admiralty district.

Two legislative meetings scheduled to be held at the Legislative Council (Legco) Wednesday morning were forced to be called off. Public tours were also canceled. Police and the SAR government strongly condemned the violent behavior.

"What the protesters did was barbaric. They destroyed many facilities in the building after the break-in. An emergency meeting was held today to discuss ways to strengthen the security of the building. We are planning to put up fences outside to protect the building and the people inside," Alice Mak Mei-kuen, a Hong Kong legislator, told the Global Times.

She said what students did was dangerous as the broken glass was scattered in an area usually crossed by public tours.

"We are now demanding the Legco Commission apply for an injunction to make protesters withdraw and restore order to the Legco because protesters have blocked the entrance of the building for days," said Ma Fung-kwok, another legislator.

Ma and another 40 legislators had signed a joint petition.

Several protesters gathered outside the building of Legco at around 11 pm Tuesday night. They used metal barriers to attack and shatter one of the building's glass doors. Some threw bricks.

During the confrontation, legislator Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung went to the scene but failed to stop the attack. About 100 police with helmets, batons and shields arrived and deployed pepper spray to disperse the crowd from the building.

At least three police officers were injured.

Protesters claimed that the break-in was to show their disagreement with "Internet Article 23," a not-yet-implemented copyright ordinance that pan-democratic members believe may threaten freedom of speech.

"Some of us wanted to escalate the protest action because the government has been ignoring us," a protester said.

Mak condemned protesters for making excuses for their violent actions. "The Legco has not yet started discussing the draft of Internet Article 23," she said.

Another legislator Tam Yiu-chung also said the Occupy movement, which claimed to be peaceful, has lost people's confidence.

"The leaders of the movement have been distorting the idea of the rule of law. They are trying to make people believe that they can disobey the law," he told the Global Times on Wednesday. The student federation, one of the main pan-democratic groups making up the Occupy movement, released a statement saying that the government should be held responsible.