Hong Kong: Police arrest 325 people over violent acts

Hong Kong police on Monday said that they had arrested 325 people over illegal and violent acts between November 1 and 3, while 12 police officers were injured during the operations.
Senior Superintendent of the Police Public Relations (PPRB), Tse Chun-chung, said this in a live broadcast that 247 males and 78 females, aged between 14 and 54, were arrested.
The police said that they were for unlawful assembly, possession of instruments fit for an unlawful purpose, criminal damage and using face covering at unlawful assemblies.
Others are possession of prohibited weapon, and possession of firearms as well as ammunition without a licence.
Kong said that more than 180 incendiary bombs, some incendiary fluids, telescopic batons, pepper spray, helmets and gas masks were seized in a residential unit in Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island on Saturday, when five people were arrested.
The case was brought to the court on Monday.
A police news conference scheduled for 4 p.m. local time on Monday was canceled after six journalists staged a demonstration inside the media briefing room at the police headquarters.
Tse said that it was very regrettable that some journalists did not respect the news conference and deprived other journalists of their rights to cover news and the public of their rights to receive important information from the police.
Therefore, the police broadcast the information to the public via a live broadcast on social media platforms.
Tse said that over the past weekend, violence and vandalism continued in Hong Kong, in which a news organisation being vandalised and set on fire by masked rioters, who tried to use violence to suppress press freedom.
He added that Hong Kong has been plagued by violence in the past few months, and every week, there were people beaten by masked rioters.
Up to now, 85 metro stations had been damaged, 460 sets of traffic lights out of order, and more than 40,000 meters of iron railing were torn down.
“If the violence continues to be rationalised and glorified, it will only ruin Hong Kong,” he stressed.
According to Hong Kong Fire Services Department, 52 fires were recorded related to demonstrations and gatherings, including some metro stations and Xinhua News Agency in Wan Chai.