Police tried to hold back angry demonstrators who surrounded the pro-democracy protesters at a junction they had been occupying for five days. Some students backed away toward an underground rail station, while others were driven back by cheering groups.

One small group chanted “I want genuine democracy”, while a crowd yelled at them to “Go home!” as police struggled to contain the confrontation.

Police urged all sides to “stay calm and exercise restraint” in what they described in a statement as a “chaotic situation” in Mong Kok.

Some locals have criticised the demonstrations, with local shopkeepers claiming a massive downturn in business.

While the United States, Europe and Japan have all expressed their concern at the scenes playing out in one of the world’s leading financial capitals, China insisted that there was “no room to make concessions on important principles”.

“Fake democracy”

On August 31, China said Hong Kongers would be able to vote for their next chief executive in 2017 — but that only candidates vetted by a loyalist committee would be allowed to stand, a decision dismissed as “fake democracy” by campaigners.

Demonstrators had set a midnight Thursday ultimatum for Leung to resign and for Beijing to abandon the proposals to vet candidates.

Leung refused to quit, but in a dramatic televised appearance shortly before the midnight deadline he appointed his deputy to sit down with a prominent students’ group that has been at the vanguard of the protests.

Mistrust was rife that Leung was merely trying to buy time in the hope that the Hong Kong public will tire of the disruption caused by the mass sit-ins.

- © AFP, 2014

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