Protesters and lawmakers in Hong Kong came forward on Monday to accuse the police of standing by while groups of men dressed in white attacked both protesters and commuters on Sunday night in Yoho Mall, a shopping center connected to the mass transit station, according to The Guardian.
Video taken by journalists and commuters showed dozens of men wearing white t-shirts and white masks storming the train station while beating passengers with rods, brooms, and other objects.
Witnesses said the group targeted mostly pro-democracy protesters, but also injured a pregnant woman and one woman holding an infant.
Pro-democracy lawmaker Ray Chan tweeted: “Hong Kong has 1 of the world’s highest cop to population ratio. Where were @hkpoliceforce?”
Yoho Mall said several shops would be closed on Monday due to concerns the armed men would return on Monday evening.
Activists believe the men were the same ones hired during the 2014 pro-democracy protesters and likely from Southern China, where authorities have been known to hire men to harass protesters.
Pro-democracy protesters staged another massive march on Sunday, drawing hundreds of thousands of people that collapsed into a chaotic scene after police fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.
But the videos from the train station attack have drawn widespread outrage after one witness said: “They beat people in the carriage indiscriminately whoever they were, even people who were returning home from work … Some men were shielding us. They didn’t fight back otherwise we would have been beaten even worse. They beat even women and children.”
Videos of the attack show passengers crying as they tried to shield themselves from the makeshift weapons, commuters bleeding on the ground of the train station, while others were beaten as the men in white kicked and punched them.
After police arrived, angry protesters demanded to know what had taken them so long to get there..
Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority said 45 people between the ages of 18 and 64, were injured in the attack, including one man who was in critical condition while five more people were in serious condition.
“Is Hong Kong now allowing triads to do what they want, beating up people on the street with weapons?” Democratic party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, who was among the injured, asked reporters.
Police claimed they made no arrests since they "could not be sure of who was involved" in the attack after claiming they had seen no weapons present by the white-shirted men.
Activist and pro-democracy movement leader Joshua Wong said the attacks were an attempt to “silence the voice of Hong Kong’s people."
Wong said the attacks were part of Hong Kong's organized crime triads which often participate in "engaged and coordinated" plots to support the rule of mainland China.
Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said the attacks were shocking but called for calm since “violence will only breed more violence."
She also condemned protesters who clashed with police earlier in the day after they threw paint and eggs at China's main representative office in the city.
But Lam sidestepped several other questions from journalists about the attacks and walked out as questions were still being yelled out by reporters.
Wong said Hong Kong police chief Stephen Lo’s claim that officers were waiting for backup was "misleading."
“Gangsters serving the interests of Beijing physically attacked not only protesters but also pregnant women, the elderly and children,” he said. “When people dialed the emergency 999 hotline, police just hung up the phone. They had 1,000 officers at the nearest station but did not send anybody.”
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
Photo:
AP / Bobby Yip
