Hong Kong police faced criticism on Monday for an apparent failure to protect anti-government protesters and passersby from attack by suspected gang members at a train station on the weekend.
The attack on Sunday came during a night of violence that opened new fronts in Hong Kong’s widening political crisis over an extradition bill, that could see people sent to China for trial.
Protesters had earlier on Sunday surrounded China’s main representative office in the city and defaced walls and signs and clashed with police.
The city’s Beijing-backed leader, Carrie Lam, condemned the attack on China’s liaison office, saying it was a “challenge” to national sovereignty.
She condemned violent behaviour of any kind and described as “shocking” the apparent attack by triad criminal gangs on ordinary citizens and protesters at the station, saying authorities would investigate fully.
Some politicians and activists have long linked Hong Kong’s shadowy network of triad criminal gangs to political intimidation and violence in recent years, sometimes against pro-democracy activists and critics of Beijing.
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