Hong Kong police at a press briefing on Nov. 1 shows pictures of rioters committing violence on Halloween on Oct. 31, 2019 in Hong Kong, south China. (Xinhua)
The Hong Kong police on Friday warned against the escalating violence used by rioters, including dangerous and prohibited weapons such as stun guns and home-made mechanical bombs.
"Among our observations, two discoveries concern us most -- the seizure of stun guns and homemade mechanical bombs," Chief Superintendent of Police Public Relations Branch (PPRB) Tse Chun-chung said at a press briefing on Friday afternoon.
On Thursday night, the Halloween, violent protesters hijacked street celebration for the festival to go on a rampage in the districts of Central and Mong Kok. In Mong Kok, besides paralyzing traffic, committing arson, vandalizing public properties, the rioters also violently attacked several passers-by, Tse said.
He added that in one of the cases, a group of black-clad rioters beat and kicked a man, poked him with long umbrellas and even attacked him with a suspected stun gun, leaving the victim unconscious with bloody and life-threatening injuries.
On a flyover in Prince Edward, an area adjacent to Mong Kok, the police seized some home-made mechanical bombs made with gas cans commonly used for cooking hot pots, Tse said, adding that the gas cans "are indeed very dangerous and destructive when ignited."
"We express the strongest condemnation of this escalating violence," Tse said.
Having noticed that there are people selling prohibited weapons online, the police launched an operation earlier Friday in which they pretended as buyers and bought 20 extendable batons and 10 stun guns online. A male was arrested in the operation, according to Senior Superintendent of PPRB Kong Wing-cheung.
Kong pointed out that both extendable batons and stun guns are prohibited weapons under the Hong Kong law. Those in possession of these weapons are liable to penalty and imprisonment if convicted.
According to Kong, from Monday to Thursday, the police arrested a total of 249 people, including 175 males and 74 females aged between 13 and 61 years old. Their offenses include unlawful assembly, possession of offensive weapons, possession of tools for unlawful purposes, criminal damage, assault on police, use of facial covering in unlawful assembly, and so on.
Describing the seizure of stunt guns and homemade mechanical bombs as "a bad omen for Hong Kong", Tse warned that "every member in the society should be alarmed by the escalating violence rioters have taken."
He urged the public to stop condoning violence. "It is imperative that we all do what we can to end this violence and restore safety and stability in Hong Kong."
