TV grab shows rioters trying to damage traffic lights in Tsim Sha Tsui, south China's Hong Kong, Dec. 24, 2019.
Violence returned to Hong Kong streets on Christmas Eve as large masked groups of rioters assaulted police, vandalized shops and set fire in various districts.
Media footage showed rioters besieged and hurled hard items at plainclothes police officers in the Harbor City in Tsim Sha Tsui, a popular shopping district in Hong Kong, at about 8:00 p.m. local time. Police then arrived and arrested several attackers.
Black-clad protesters also marched and chanted anti-government slogans in shopping malls in Yuen Long and Mong Kok, seriously disrupting public order. Some threw pieces of paper into restaurants and asked diners to leave. When rioters started vandalism, quite a number of stores were forced to close.
At around 8 p.m. local time, a man fell from the second to the first floor in Yoho Mall II in Yuen Long when attacking and escaping from police officers who arrived to handle a report of rioters vandalizing shops. He has been sent to the hospital in a conscious state.
Rioters built up blockages with debris in the conjunction of Argyle Street and Portland Street in Mong Kok.
A large group of rioters started to occupy Nathan Road and Salisbury Road in Tsim Sha Tsui at about 9:00 p.m. They set barricades, damaged traffic lights and dug up bricks, seriously paralyzing the traffic. Some even set a fire outside an entrance of a metro station.
An outlet of HSBC in Mong Kok also fell victim as rioters smashed windows and spray-painted walls of the bank.
At about 11 p.m. local time, rioters threw petrol bombs into Tsim Sha Tsui Police Station, posing a serious threat to the safety of citizens and police officers at the scene.
In the face of the chaos, police asked rioters to stop destructive activities, or the minimum necessary force would be deployed for dispersal and arrest.
Tang Ping-keung, the commissioner of police of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, earlier in the evening called on protesters not to commit violent acts and to let residents have a peaceful Christmas Eve.
Police on Tuesday afternoon seized smoke bombs and flammable chemicals that could be used by rioters and made an arrest in Kwun Tong.
