A pro-democracy protester is arrested by riot police after police moved in the occupied area by the protesters in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong, early Friday, Oct. 17, 2014.HONG KONG – Riot police cleared an offshoot Hong Kong pro-democracy protest zone in a dawn raid on Friday, taking down barricades, tents and canopies that have blocked key streets for more than two weeks, but leaving the city’s main thoroughfare still in the hands of the activists.
Hundreds of officers, some in helmets and shields, descended in the early morning on the busy district of Mong Kok, a smaller protest zone across the Victoria Harbor from the main occupied area in the city’s financial district. The key thoroughfare in Admiralty, near the heart of the city’s financial district, remained occupied by protesters.
The dawn operation – the third in recent days by police to retake streets from protesters – came hours after Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying sought to defuse a bitter standoff with student-led democracy protesters by reviving an offer of talks over democratic reforms in the city.
However, Leung warned police wouldn’t refrain from clearing protest sites while holding talks and the latest operation is likely to make it harder to resolve the crisis with protesters, who were already angered by a video of a group of officers beating a handcuffed activist.
Officers swiftly tore down metal barricades, bamboo and wooden planks used by protesters to block off the streets as well as blue and white striped tarps covering their main campsite in the middle of a four-way intersection. Much of the protest zone was cleared in about half an hour.