Hong Kong riot police fired tear gas and baton-charged pro-democracy protesters who retaliated with stones, bottles and bamboo poles, breaking an uneasy peace that had lasted several days.
Thousands of demonstrators many of them wearing hard hats and gas masks, marched through the industrial Kwun Tong area, where they were blocked by dozens of officers with shields and batons outside a police station.
Several of the black-clad protesters were detained as officers swept through. The police justified their charge the protesters who had set fires and hurled bricks at them.
