Hong Kong police resort to pepper spray, tear gas during Christmas protests

Christmas day celebrations in Hong Kong were marred by protests as demonstrators waded the roads and to disperse them, police resorted to tear gas and pepper spray.

According to the South China Morning Post, anti-government protestors hit the streets of Hong Kong and gathered in shopping centres. Riot police were deployed at various hot spots.

As the number of protesters increased, the police pepper-sprayed and personnel tried subduing protestors using forces.

Riot police retreating to their vans as hundreds of protesters advanced towards them in Mong Kok's Shanghai Street fired two rounds of tear gas at them at around 6:30 pm without raising any warning flag.

The city's embattled leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, called the protestors "a group of reckless and selfish rioters".

Such illegal acts have not only dampened the festive mood but also adversely affected local businesses," she said in a Facebook post. "The government will try its utmost to uphold law and order, and restore peace in Hong Kong".

Last week, protesters handed out Christmas cards to passers-by and also asked them to write messages for the injured or arrested in the city.

Over more than half a year of regular violent street clashes between protesters and police, more than 6,100 people, aged 11 to 84, have been arrested, according to the authorities.

The hospital authorities noted that more than 2,600 have been admitted with injuries related to the protests, at which officers have used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons, and the demonstrators have regularly hurled bricks, petrol bombs, and other projectiles.