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Hundreds of unidentified people try to break down barricades, scuffles with protesters
ABC Radio Australia - October 12, 2014
Barricades were ripped down by anti-protester groups of men calling for the students to leave.
"The group of people who look like gangsters, they start running toward them [protesters], and then one of them hit an old man with something hard, hit his head, so he's injured over there right now," said 20-year-old student protester and witness Winnie Locke.
Taxi and truck drivers, opposed to the protests which have seriously affected their business, surrounded some barricades as police stood between the opposing sides.
A truck with a crane on top attempted to remove barricades from one area until police stopped it. Taxi drivers had earlier given protesters a deadline of Wednesday evening for all barricades to be lifted.
But the drive to shut down the sit-in failed with most of the anti-protest crowd still together, though the scene remains tense.
Police clear some barricades
Earlier Monday, Hong Kong police started to remove barriers erected by the pro-democracy protesters who have occupied several sites around the city, ruled under China's "one country, two systems" principle.
They are demanding full democracy and have called on the city's embattled leader, CY Leung, to step down after Beijing in August ruled out free elections for Hong Kong's next leader in 2017.
The Hong Kong and Chinese governments have said the demonstrations are illegal. On Sunday night, Mr Leung said the protesters had "almost zero chance" of changing Beijing's stance and securing free elections.
At the main protest site around government offices in the downtown district of Admiralty, scores of student protesters faced off with police who were massing in the area. Overnight, student numbers dwindled and some were caught unawares by the police action.
The police were dressed in high-visibility jackets but were not wearing riot gear. Police also gathered at a secondary site in Mongkok, according to television reports.
Despite repeated orders to disperse, the rallies have taken on an air of permanence with tents, portable showers and lecture venues, drawing thousands of people in recent evenings.
After police were criticised for unleashing tear gas on the earliest rallies, Mr Leung said that if the government had to clear the protests sites, police would use a "minimum amount of force". (Reuters/AFP)
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