PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS in Hong Kong today clashed with police and barricaded a tunnel near the government headquarters.
They had previously been cleared out of other demonstration sites, but today’s tensions brought a new escalation of the ongoing crisis over landmark elections in 2017.
The demonstrators blocked the underpass with tires, metal, plastic safety barriers and concrete slabs taken from drainage ditches.
Earlier, hundreds of police wearing helmets and holding shields and batons scuffled with the protesters in a brief, tense standoff.
Earlier, police dismantled bamboo blockades, but protesters raced to rebuild them later on tonight.
The police operations over the past two days follow the government’s abrupt cancellation of talks scheduled last Friday with the activists, citing the unlikelihood of a constructive outcome given their sharp differences.
The protesters want Hong Kong’s deeply unpopular Beijing-backed leader, Chief Executive CY Leung to resign.
They also want the Hong Kong government to drop plans for a pro-Beijing committee to screen candidates for the inaugural election to choose his replacement.
Leung has said there is “almost zero chance” that China’s government will change its rules for the election, promised for 2017.
Contains reporting by the Associated Press.
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