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3 Oct 2014

Hong Kong clashes break out after counter-protest

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I am standing next to a hundred or so student protestors who look very young and very scared. Just 15 metres or so away are hundreds of angry people shaking their fists and screaming at them.

I write to you on an island – an island in the middle of one of Hong Kong’s busiest commercial districts called Mong Kok. I am standing next to a hundred or so student protesters who look very young and very scared. Some wear paper face masks to shield their identities but the masks don’t cover their tears or their fearful looks.

On the centre of this island – a junction between two large thoroughfares in Mong Kok – stands a tent. It is a flimsy looking tent with thirteen poles and attached to each pole are a handful of protesters griping tightly as a means of protection.

Just 15 metres or so away, on each side of the tent, are hundreds of angry people shaking their fists and screaming “clear them, clear them” to each other.

Read more: on the streets of Hong Kong with #OccupyCentral movement

They represent the side of Hong Kong that we have seen little of after six days of pro-democracy protests.

They are the local traders and office workers and the kitchen staff whose journeys have been disrupted and businesses affected by the occupation of three areas in the city by mainly student protesters.

The students say they are organised and paid to be here – sent in to clear them off the site by pro-Beijing political parties. Every few minutes a band of men will thrust themselves towards the tent, clashing with students linked arm by arm.

There are police here – 30 or 40 perhaps, but their numbers are inadequate. No reinforcements have been sent and it seems both they and the students will soon be swept away.

Read more: Hong Kong chief executive agrees to talks with protesters

After weeks of peaceful demonstrations in Hong Kong aiming at securing an open election for the territory’s next leader, this is a different sort of politics and it is intimidating.

There is no dialogue here, just the bay of the mob and two sides no longer able to communicate with each other.

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