Police strongly condemn protestors for blocking Harcourt Road, Arsenal Street and Gloucester Road started at about 10.30pm yesterday (June 26) and further besieging and damaging the Police Headquarters (PHQ) in Wan Chai. Police will stringently follow up on these illegal activities.
The acts of the protestors seriously affected the work of Police, including the provision of emergency services to the public. The Report Room service in Wan Chai Police Station has been suspended since around 10.40pm yesterday. Eighteen calls of 999 hotline in Wan Chai Division could not be immediately handled. Extra resources were deployed to follow up. The incident also made staff members who were on night shift could not report duty.
While besieging PHQ, the protestors used mills barriers and sundries to block the entrance and exit gates, threw eggs at PHQ, drew graffiti on the outer walls, and destroyed the closed-circuit television on the outer wall of PHQ. They also targeted strong lights and laser beam at Police officers’ eyes and maliciously obstructed officers from entering and leaving PHQ.
Police respect the public's freedom of expression, speech and assembly. However, the behaviour of the protestors obviously went beyond the legal boundary, which is not acceptable in our society. Police will deal with these illegal acts in a steadfast manner.
For the sake of public order and public safety, at about 3.30am, Police took actions to disperse protestors and to take down the obstacles in the vicinity of PHQ to resume traffic. Police’s operations completed at around 6.45am this morning. During the operations, a man was arrested for assaulting police officer.
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