Hong Kong: A mob of masked men armed with batons stormed a train station in the Hong Kong district of Yuen Long. Footage posted on social media showed the men, all in white T-shirts, violently attacking people on platforms and inside train carriages, the BBC reported.

At least 36 people were injured in the violence on Sunday, according to local media reports. The mob attack followed the latest pro-democracy rally in the centre of Hong Kong, where riot police had fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters.

It is unclear who the mob were or what the motives for the attack were. In a statement, the government said that in Yuen Long "some people congregated at the platforms of the MTR station and train compartments, attacking commuters".

"This is absolutely unacceptable to Hong Kong as a society that observes the rule of law. The SAR (Special Administrative Region) government strongly condemns any violence and will seriously take enforcement actions."

Hong Kong Police also said: "Some people attacked commuters at the platforms of the Yuen Long MTR station and train compartments, resulting in multiple injuries."

The mob stormed Yuen Long MTR station at about 10.30 p.m., hours after clashes between protesters and police in the Sheung Wan area earlier in the day. Yuen Long is a more remote district of Hong Kong, and is far away from the site of the main pro-democracy protests.

Riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters in Hong Kong at a large pro-democracy rally, and charged demonstrators who threw objects at police lines.

The protest route was altered with protesters told to stop at Wan Chai rather than Central, where the key government offices are located. Some 4,000 police officers were deployed. </s> Anger soared in Hong Kong today over a vicious assault on pro-democracy protesters by suspected triad gangsters that left dozens wounded, a dramatic escalation of the political turmoil plaguing the Chinese city.

The financial hub's roiling unrest took a dark turn late last night when gangs of men - most wearing white T-shirts and carrying bats, sticks and metal poles - set upon anti-government demonstrators as they returned from another huge march earlier that day.

Footage from the attack circulating on social media showed people screaming as the men beat groups of protesters and journalists in Yuen Long station and inside subway trains, leaving pools of blood on the floor.

Hospital authorities said 45 people were wounded in the attack, with one man in critical condition and five others with serious injuries.

There are fears that more violent attacks would be carried out by triads today, prompting businesses in Yoho Mall, which is connected to the metro station, to close early, according to Apple Daily.

Critics rounded on the city's embattled police force by accusing them of colluding with those who carried out the attack.

Protesters said officers took more than an hour to reach the station despite frantic calls from those under attack, and failing to arrest the armed assailants who stayed in the streets around the station into this morning.

Some men in white shirts were later filmed leaving the scene in cars with Chinese mainland number plates.

One video showed pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho shaking hands with the suspected gang members after the attack, praising them as his heroes.

Witnesses of the attack, including Democratic lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, said the men appeared to target black-shirted passengers who had been at the anti-government march.

Lam, who was wounded in the face and hospitalised, said the police ignored calls he made, pleading with them to intervene and prevent bloodshed.

'They deliberately turned a blind eye to these attacks by triads on regular citizens,' he told Reuters, saying the floors of the station were streaked with blood.

'Their very barbaric and violent acts have already completely violated the bottom line of Hong Kong's civilised society,' he told reporters early today.

Bowie Tin, 28, said she was travelling on the subway on her way home when the train stopped at Yuen Long station at about 10:55pm for more than 15 minutes.

'There were protesters dressed in black telling people not to get off the train because there was an ongoing attack downstairs at the station lobby,' she told MailOnline.

'They were also asking if there are doctors or nurses on the train because some people were hit in the head and were bleeding,' she added. 'I went out and saw masked men dressed in white attacking people in front of children, women and elderly people.'

'It was horrifying. I wanted to cry. I prayed for the train doors to close as soon as possible and I feared for my life,' she said.

A senior district police commander, Yau Nai-keung, said an initial police patrol had to wait reinforcements given a situation involving more than 100 people.

Yau told reporters the police had not made any arrests at the station or during a follow-up search of a nearby village, but were investigating.

Witnesses saw groups of men in white with poles and bamboo staves at the village but Yau said police saw no weapons when they arrived. Following some questioning of the men, they were allowed to leave, he told reporters.

'We can't say you have a problem because you are dressed in white and we have to arrest you. We will treat them fairly no matter which camp they are in,' Yau said.

Chief Superintendent John Tse Chun-chung, head of the police public relations bureau, denied the accusations, despite it taking officers more than half an hour to arrive at the scene.

'I cannot agree. Just because we were not at the scene right away, doesn't mean we colluded with any party,' he said in a radio programme today.

Furious pro-democracy lawmakers held a press conference today where they accused the city's pro-Beijing leaders of turning a blind eye to the attacks.

'This is triad gangs beating up Hong Kong people,' fumed Alvin Yeung. 'Yet you pretend nothing had happened?'

The clashes have ratcheted up concern that the city's feared triad gangs are wading into the political conflict.

Yuen Long lies in the New Territories near the Chinese border where the criminal gangs and staunchly pro-Beijing rural committees remain influential.

Similar assaults by pro-government vigilantes against demonstrators during the 2014 'Umbrella Movement' protests were blamed on triads.

As the mob rampage unfolded in Yuen Long police were simultaneously battling hardcore democracy protesters in the middle of the city's commercial district.

Riot officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters, hours after China's Hong Kong Liaison Office was daubed with eggs and graffiti in a vivid rebuke to Beijing's rule.

Wang Zhimin, the head of the office, blasted the protesters on Monday, saying they had insulted 'all Chinese people' as he called on Hong Kong's government to pursue the 'rioters'.

Xinhua added the demonstration 'blatantly challenged the authority of the central government' and was 'absolutely intolerable'.

Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said the targeting of the office was a 'challenge' to national sovereignty, condemning violent behaviour of any kind.

She also described as 'shocking' the attack by organised triad criminal gangs on ordinary citizens and protesters at Yuen Long, saying authorities would investigate fully.

Earlier in the day, another huge and peaceful anti-government march had made its way through the city - the seventh weekend in a row that residents have come out en masse.

Hong Kong has been plunged into its worst crisis in recent history by weeks of marches and sporadic violent confrontations between police and pockets of hardcore protesters.

The initial protests were lit by a now-suspended bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, but they have since evolved into a wider movement calling for democratic reforms, universal suffrage and a halt to sliding freedoms in the semi-autonomous territory.

The city's parliament was trashed by protesters earlier this month, as Beijing's authority faces its most serious challenge since Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997.

Six weeks of huge protests have done little to persuade the city's unelected leaders - or Beijing - to change tack on the hub's future.

Under the 1997 handover deal with Britain, China promised to allow Hong Kong to keep key liberties such as its independent judiciary and freedom of speech.

But many say those provisions are already being curtailed, citing the disappearance into mainland custody of dissident booksellers, the disqualification of prominent politicians and the jailing of pro-democracy protest leaders.

Authorities have also resisted calls for the city's leader to be directly elected by the people.

Protesters have vowed to keep their movement going until their core demands - such as an independent inquiry into police tactics, an amnesty for those arrested, a permanent withdrawal of the bill, universal suffrage and Lam's resignation - are met.

There is little sign that either Lam or Beijing will budge.

Beyond agreeing to suspend the extradition bill there have been few other concessions and fears are rising that Beijing's patience is running out. </s> HONG KONG: At least 45 people were injured, with one person in critical condition, after a group of masked men attacked anti-government protesters and commuters at a Hong Kong train station on Sunday night (Jul 21), according to the city's hospital authorities.



The group, many wielding sticks and clad in white T-shirts, flooded into a Mass Transit Railway (MTR) station in the rural Yuen Long district, storming a train and attacking passengers, according to footage taken by commuters and opposition lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting.



Footage from the attack broadcast live on Facebook showed people screaming as the men beat multiple protesters and journalists in the station, leaving pools of blood on the floor.

Critics rounded on the city's embattled police force, accusing officers of taking more than an hour to reach the station despite frantic calls from those under attack and then failing to arrest the armed men who stayed in the streets around the station into Monday morning.

Some men in white shirts were later filmed leaving the scene in cars with Chinese mainland number plates.

Lam, a pro-democracy lawmaker, was one of those wounded in the melee, sustaining lacerations to his face and arms. He criticised police for their response and accused "triad members" of being behind the attacks.

"Their very barbaric and violent acts have already completely violated the bottom line of Hong Kong's civilised society," he told reporters early on Monday.



"Is Hong Kong now allowing triads to do what they want, beating up people on the street with weapons?"



Nathan Law, a prominent pro-democracy activist, added on Twitter: "When the Chinese mobs are attacking the citizens, no law enforcement are there. Shame on the government."

The clashes have ratcheted up fears that the city's feared triad gangs are wading into the political conflict.

Yuen Long lies in the New Territories near the Chinese border where the criminal gangs and staunchly pro-Beijing rural committees remain influential.

Similar assaults by pro-government vigilantes against demonstrators during the 2014 "Umbrella Movement" protests were blamed on triads.

READ: Tear gas and rubber bullets fired as Hong Kong returns to chaos



As the mob rampage unfolded in Yuen Long, police were simultaneously battling hardcore democracy protesters in the middle of the city's commercial district.

Riot officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets at anti-government protesters, hours after China's office in the city was daubed with eggs and graffiti in a vivid rebuke to Beijing's rule.

Another 13 people were injured after the clashes on Hong Kong island, one seriously, the Hospital Authority said.

In a statement on Monday, police "strongly condemned" both the violent incidents in Yuen Long and Hong Kong island, and said they were investigating both cases. Police added no arrests had been made at the station or during a follow-up search of a nearby village.



Yau Nai-keung, Yuen Long assistant district police commander, told reporters that an initial police patrol had to wait for more reinforcements given a situation involving more than 100 people.

He added police saw no weapons when they arrived although eyewitnesses said they saw groups of men in white with poles and bamboo staves at a nearby village.



"We can't say you have a problem because you are dressed in white and we have to arrest you. We will treat them fairly no matter which camp they are in," Yau said.



Some police had been injured in the clashes after protesters hurled bricks, smoke grenades and petrol bombs, the statement said.

READ: What lies ahead for Hong Kong, a city on edge



Hong Kong has been plunged into its worst crisis in recent history by weeks of marches and sporadic violent confrontations between police and pockets of hardcore protesters.

The initial protests were lit by a now-suspended Bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China.

But they have since evolved into a wider movement calling for democratic reforms, universal suffrage and a halt to sliding freedoms in the semi-autonomous territory.

The city's parliament was trashed by protesters earlier this month, as Beijing's authority faces its most serious challenge since Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997. </s> Hundreds of masked assailants dressed in white have assaulted residents, protesters, journalists and a lawmaker in Yuen Long, hours after an anti-extradition law march ended.

Update: Hong Kong police made no arrests after mob assaulted commuters, protesters, journalists

The group used bamboo sticks and other weapons to attack people in the area and in the West Rail Line station, injuring Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, who was seen bleeding from his mouth in a social media live stream.

Police officers were not visibly present when the skirmish occurred.

See also: Hong Kong police deploy tear gas, rubber bullets against protesters as gov’t slams ‘direct challenge to national sovereignty’

A photo circulated online by the Civil Human Rights Front, which organised the rally attended by “430,000” earlier in the day, showed a person with multiple bloody lashes on his back.

Update: Church worker and Demosisto member left severely injured by Yuen Long attackers

﻿

The Front accused the police of failing to take actions in Yuen Long while people were being attacked and instead, unnecessarily firing tear gas at protesters in Sheung Wan.

“Real thugs have attacked passersby, a journalist and a lawmaker, badly injuring them, but the police have failed to enforce the law. This has angered us greatly,” the statement read.

The group said certain “powerful authorities” have been using “thugs” to attack protesters since the 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. “Hong Kong people must unite to oppose personal violence and structural violence,” they added.

Stand News reporter Gwyneth Ho said she was left bleeding and injured with swelling at the back of the head and slight dizziness after she was attacked. Ho was sent to hospital to receive treatment.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association said a male reporter was beaten and left bleeding in his mouth.

The men also took a reporter’s TV camera and destroyed it, the press freedom watchdog said.

Police in riot gear arrived at Yuen Long station at around 11:30pm.

The MTR announced at around 11pm that West Rail Line trains will not stop at Yuen Long because of the crowds gathering. Train services resumed at 11:25pm.

In a statement, a government spokesperson condemned the violent scenes: “This is absolutely unacceptable to Hong Kong as a society that observes the rule of law. The SAR Government strongly condemns any violence and will seriously take enforcement actions.”

Meanwhile, in a widely circulated online video, pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho could be seen applauding and giving a “thumbs up” to people dressed in white. He also shook hands with two men who held small Hong Kong bauhinia flags. When a man told Ho, “you are my idol,” the lawmaker replied: “All of you are my heroes.”

﻿

Earlier, Yuen Long District Councillor To Ka-lun wrote in a Facebook post that he had received a complaint from a resident, who said he had called the police for help. However, he was told to “not go out into the streets” if he was afraid, To said. </s> A mob of armed, masked pro-China assailants beat and severely injured peaceful protesters, pregnant women, and journalists in Hong Kong’s rural Yuen Long region Sunday night, resulting in no arrests and triggering widespread condemnation of the government’s suspected collusion with organized crime gangs.

Reports on the ground estimate that the white-clad mob numbered in the “hundreds” and targeted individuals in Yuen Long’s West Rail Line mass transit station that wore black, the color of the anti-China protests. At least one lawmaker – Democratic Party legislator Lam Cheuk-ting, who had joined the protesters in solidarity to call for an end to Beijing’s erosion of civil rights in the region – was among those that endured significant injury.

Members of the pro-democracy coalition against the Chinese Communist Party produced photos and videos showing the attackers violently assaulting individuals they believed tied to the protests and journalists that attempted to document the attacks. They also published footage appearing to show mob members chatting with police casually, with no apparent fear of being arrested for their violence.

While the mobs, which protesters tied to local “triad” organized crime groups, stormed Yuen Long, most police activity in Hong Kong Sunday night occurred in Sheung Wan, north Hong Kong island – far from Yuen Long and against a group that had organized to protest against China peacefully there. In Sheung Wan, protesters allege, the police fired rubber bullets and tear gas into a crowd that had not shown any signs of becoming unruly.

Police have made no arrests at press time in connection to the Yuen Long attacks.

Hong Kong erupted in protests that have yet to abate in early June, a response to an attempt by the nominally autonomous region of China’s Legislative Council (LegCo) to pass a law granting greater influence to China’s Communist Party police. Pro-China lawmakers introduced a law that would allow Beijing to extradite any person physically present in Hong Kong accused of violating China’s authoritarian laws. Opponents complained that the law would essentially turn Hong Kong into a communist city and violate the “One Country, Two Systems” policy China agreed to upon receiving Hong Kong from the U.K. in 1997.

According to the Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), the violence in Yuen Long followed a peaceful protest; the mob attacked protesters walking towards mass transit on their way home. The protest had attracted nearly half a million people, organizers said, without incident. The attackers indiscriminately beat crowds wearing black shirts, the color of the protests, and stormed a mass transit train, where they could successfully cause more damage given the enclosed space.

According to the South China Morning Post, at least 45 protesters were hospitalized following the attack, one remaining in critical condition.

Pro-democracy movement leader Joshua Wong accused the mob on Twitter of attacking “pregnant women, elderly, journalist[s], children,” publishing images of bloodied protesters, including a visibly pregnant woman.

Lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, a victim of the mob violence, broadcast live video on his mobile phone showing the attackers beating protesters, including himself. In a clip republished by another lawmaker, Ray Chan, the mob can be seen surrounding a train and beating passengers inside with sticks.

After the attacks, Lam said he asked police for help containing the mob but they did not respond. He accused the triads of working with police to harm citizens.

“They deliberately turned a blind eye to these attacks by triads on regular citizens,” Lam told Reuters “I won’t speculate on why they didn’t help immediately.”

Lam later published photos of his injuries on his Facebook page.

A coalition of 24 Hong Kong lawmakers issued a statement Monday after the attacks accusing Hong Kong police of cooperating with triads to silence protesters, revealing that multiple protesters called the government emergency number, 999, and received either no responses or tepid suggestions to leave the streets if they wish to avoid trouble.

“Last night, the 999 reporting hotline would not connect for a long time and the police station was closed. There were even police officers who pretended they didn’t see the actions of those in white shirts and red ribbons, and turned around to leave,” the lawmakers alleged. “The police, who are like the servants of triads, have completely lost the public’s trust, forcing people to defend themselves. The situation makes people wonder if [Chief Executive] Carrie Lam received instructions from the party to cause divisions among the public.”

The Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Sunday that many of the white-shirted attackers appeared to drive into and out of Yuen Long in cars with Chinese license plates, suggesting the government had allied with the communist regime to bring violent criminals into Hong Kong. Locals on social media also posted videos appearing to show representatives of the mob speaking casually to police officers – indicating that the police knew the identities of the attackers and had a chance to arrest them, but chose not to.

The Civil Human Rights Front, the most prominent pro-democracy organization behind the protests, issued a statement saying that its members had experienced violent attacks by “thugs” working with the government against them in the past.

“Real thugs have attacked passersby, a journalist and a lawmaker, badly injuring them, but the police have failed to enforce the law. This has angered us greatly,” the statement read.

During the 2014 anti-China “Umbrella Revolution” protests, peaceful Hong Kongers faced large crowds of triad-organized assailants attempting to beat them. As the New Yorker reported at the time:

China has not faced protests of the magnitude currently occurring in Hong Kong in the post-Tiananmen Square era – one in which the internet facilitates the propagation of violent images and global solidarity against authoritarian regimes. Thus, China has no domestic strategy for handling such protests without deploying the military to kill the protesters. It appears to be importing the tactic of using vulgar, violent mobs against the people from Latin America, where the Cuban communist regime and its proxy in Venezuela have long used mobs or armed gangs (colectivos) to insult, injure, rape, and kill protesters. Cuba has gone so far as to ship out its angry mobs to berate and insult representatives from democratic countries at the United Nations.

Hong Kong Chief of Police Stephen Lo adamantly denied his officers had any ties to triad groups. </s> Pro-democracy activists and lawmakers in Hong Kong have accused the police of standing by as men dressed in white attacked commuters and protesters, leaving 45 people hospitalised, including one who is critically injured.

Video footage showed dozens of men, mostly in masks, storming a mass transit station in Yuen Long late on Sunday, chasing passengers and beating them with sticks. Among those hurt in the attack were demonstrators returning from a large anti-government rally, as well as a pregnant woman and a woman holding a child, according to witnesses.

The footage, which emerged after an anti-government march by hundreds of thousands of people, caused widespread anger and condemnation as protesters and critics accused pro-Beijing officials of hiring thugs to intimidate protesters – a charge that Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam vehemently denied in a briefing Monday afternoon.

“Is Hong Kong now allowing triads to do what they want, beating up people on the street with weapons?” the Democratic party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, who was among the injured, asked reporters.

A former legislator previously with a pro-Beijing party that usually supports Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, also criticised her over the attack. James Tien on Facebook called on Lam to resign, writing: “Chief executive Lam, are you still a chief executive? Or are triads ruling Hong Kong now?”

The pro-democracy lawmaker Ray Chan tweeted: “Hong Kong has one of the world’s highest cop to population ratio. Where were @hkpoliceforce?” Another lawmaker Gary Fan said: “Hong Kong is no longer a safe city”.

Flanked by Hong Kong’s police commissioner, security chief and government ministers on Monday, Lam attempted to deflect blame by condemning both sides. “Violence will only breed more violence and at the end of the day the whole of Hong Kong and the people will suffer,” she said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Journalist Ryan Lau Chun Kong tends to his wounds after he was attacked at Yuen Long station. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Details of the attack shocked residents. A woman sobbed while recounting what happened during the Yuen Long attack, telling one witness in audio circulated online: “They beat people in the carriage indiscriminately whoever they were, even people who were returning home from work … Some men were shielding us. They didn’t fight back otherwise we would have been beaten even worse. They beat even women and children.”

Video filmed inside the train showed passengers screaming and crying as they attempted to shield themselves with umbrellas. The attackers used metal and wooden rods, as well as canes and brooms.

Footage showed a young man dressed in black being punched and kneed in the stomach by several men. A female journalist was beaten while filming the attack. Photos showed commuters bleeding and smears of blood on the station ground.

When police arrived at the station after 11pm, the assailants had left and angry protesters demanded to know why they had taken so long to get there. Police left and the attackers later came back a second time, breaking into a closed gate of the train station.

Hong Kong’s hospital authority said 45 people between the ages of 18 and 64 were injured in the attack, including one man who was in a critical condition and three in a serious condition. Late on Monday, police said they had arrested five people – some of them allegedly Triads – in relation to the attacks on charges of “unlawful assembly”.

Ray Chan (@ray_slowbeat) Snippet of a live broadcast from lawmaker Lam Cheuk ting, showing self-professed pro-Gov't mobsters attacking passengers in train cars at #MTR #YuenLong Stn. #HongKong has 1 of the world's highest cop to population ratio. Where were @hkpoliceforce? Lam was injured as shown live. pic.twitter.com/Aq5JmJlf5u

On Monday, Yoho Mall, a shopping centre connected to the Yuen Long mass transit station, said some shops had closed amid rumours the armed men would return in the evening. Businesses outside the station in Yuen Long were also closed on Monday afternoon, leaving the normally colourful streets eerily quiet. Local public recreation centres were closed at 7pm due to “public safety considerations,” according to Hong Kong’s leisure and cultural services department. Many shops in the normally bustling shopping centres in the towns of Shatin and Tuen Mun have also closed.

Hiring men to beat up protesters is not a new tactic, according to activists and observers, who say thugs were also behind attacks on pro-democracy protests in 2014. Men, possibly from southern China, where the practice is more common, heckled and assaulted demonstrators.

A widely circulated video showed the pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho, who lives in Yuen Long, shaking hands with men in white and giving them a thumbs up. In response to accusations that he had hired the men to go after protesters, Ho said in a press briefing on Monday that he had nothing to do with the attack. Asked why he did not call the police, Ho said: “They appeared to be normal residents, just like the protesters in your eyes.”

Protesters later covered Ho’s office in pro-democracy sticky notes and threw documents of his over an escalator. Several who covered their faces with scarves and hats later broke down a glass wall of his office in a shopping mall in Tsuen Wan. One poster on the wall stuck on by protesters said: “Rural bullies beat up people and carry out terrorist attacks!”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Junius Ho’s office after it was trashed by protesters. Photograph: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images

In the early hours of Monday, morning police entered a village near the station in Yuen Long where groups of men in white had gathered but said they had seen no weapons and made no arrests because they “could not be sure of who was involved”.

On Monday, Lam and her colleagues were pressed on why police took so long to reach the attacks, even after several people had called emergency services. The police chief, Stephen Lo, said officers, at the time facing down protesters who had amassed near Beijing’s liaison office, had to be redeployed.

Lam was criticised after lambasting protesters for their “blatant challenge to national sovereignty” before condemning the Yuen Long attack in statements issued late on Sunday after protesters clashed with police. Asked if she would characterise the attack in Yuen Long as a terrorist attack, Lam said only that she condemned all kinds of violence.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Demonstrators march in Hong Kong on Sunday. Photograph: Ivan Abreu/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

The protests, which began over a bill that would allow suspects in Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China, have take on wider demands, including an investigation into police behaviour. The violence in Yuen Long and the police’s response is likely to be the focus of another protest.

On Sunday, thousands of protesters attending a peaceful anti-government march defied the police-sanctioned route and pushed westwards to Beijing’s representative office in Hong Kong, where they graffitied the building’s walls, threw eggs at it, and defaced the emblem of the People’s Republic of China.

Speaking outside the building on Monday, Wang Zhimin, the director of Beijing’s liaison office, said an “illegal mob” had “seriously hurt the feelings of the entire Chinese people”. Chinese state media called the attack a “blatant challenge to the central government”.

The demonstrations challenge Beijing’s authority over the former British colony, returned to Chinese control in 1997. Under the one country, two systems framework, Hong Kong is meant to maintain a high degree of autonomy from the mainland, with an independent judiciary and a free press. But critics say they have witnessed Hong Kong’s freedoms quickly disappearing.

Among protesters’ demands are democratic reforms that would give Hong Kongers the ability to directly elect their leaders. Protest groups have vowed to continue until their demands are met. “I don’t see this ending. It looks like it’s just going to escalate … it’s almost becoming ungovernable,” said Victoria Hui, a political scientist from Hong Kong, now at Notre Dame University. </s> • A group of assailants stormed a train station in Hong Kong on Sunday night following a pro-democracy march, attacking passengers with batons, sticks, and other makeshift weapons.
• Video from the event shows a group of men, some wearing masks and many in white t-shirts, storming the Yuen Long Station in the city’s north and attacking commuters.
• Hong Kong’s hospital authority said at least 45 people were injured as of 2:30 a.m., the South China Morning Post reported, with one in critical condition.
• The train station violence follows clashes between police and protesters earlier in the day.

A group of assailants stormed a train station in Hong Kong on Sunday night following a pro-democracy march, attacking passengers with batons, sticks, and other makeshift weapons.

Video from the event shows a group of men, some wearing masks and many in white t-shirts, storming the Yuen Long Station in the city’s north and attacking commuters.

Live video posted to Facebook by pro-democracy lawmaker Lam Cheuk Ting shows men with sticks attacking passengers on a train car stopped at the station. Lam was reportedly attacked during the scuffle and can be seen with a bloodied lip.

Journalists were also reportedly injured in the attack. According to Jerome Taylor, Hong Kong bureau chief for AFP, vigilantes were working to identify the attackers and post their identities online.

Video showed paramedics on the scene unable to leave the station because of the clashes. Other footage appeared to show police turning a blind eye amid the violence.

Hong Kong’s hospital authority said at least 45 people were injured as of 2:30 a.m., South China Morning Post reported, with one in critical condition.

Witnesses say the gang appeared to be targeting commuters in black-shirts who had been at anti-government protests earlier in the day, according to Reuters.

Police clashed with protesters on Sunday, in the seventh week of protests against proposed legislation which would allow for the extradition of Hong Kong residents to mainland China to face trial.

The march, organized by the Civil Human Rights Front, began as a peaceful protest but quickly descended into chaos as some protesters advanced past police barricades and stormed the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (CPGLO), spraying graffiti on China’s national emblem and egging the entrance to the office.

According to police, those who charged police lines hurled bricks, smoke grenades, and set fires

According to the Civil Human Rights Front, 430,000 people turned up for the protests, while police put the figure closer to 138,000. Police dressed in riot gear fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse crowds.

On Monday, pro-democracy activists and lawmakers accused the police of purposely ignoring the violent actions taken by the rogue assailants.

Ray Chan, a pro-democracy lawmaker and member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, criticized perceived lack of police response to the incident.

“#HongKong has 1 of the world’s highest cop to population ratio,” he wrote. “Where were @hkpoliceforce?”

Wilson Leung, a member of Hong Kong’s Progressive Lawyer’s Group, called the alleged indifference demonstrated by police “absolutely disgraceful.”

Hong Kong Police condemned the violent attacks on commuters as well as clashes with police earlier in the day.

“Police do not tolerate any violent behaviors,” it wrote in a statement on the force’s website. “Police are now actively following up the two incidents in order to bring the offenders to justice.”

Hong Kong’s government issued a statement just after midnight, promising to take “enforcement action” against those responsible for both incidences of violence.

“Following the storming of the CPGLO building, some radical protesters initiated a series of violent acts in Sheung Wan area, despite repeated warnings by the Police. These outrageous, violent acts included hurling petrol bombs, setting fires and throwing bricks. Thoroughfares were also blocked.” “Meanwhile in Yuen Long, some people congregated at the platforms of the MTR station and train compartments, attacking commuters. It led to confrontations and injuries. “This is absolutely unacceptable to Hong Kong as a society that observes the rule of law. The SAR Government strongly condemns any violence and will seriously take enforcement actions,” it said. </s> Anger soared in Hong Kong today over a vicious assault on pro-democracy protesters by suspected triad gangsters that left dozens wounded, a dramatic escalation of the political turmoil plaguing the Chinese city.

The financial hub's roiling unrest took a dark turn late Sunday when gangs of men - most wearing white T-shirts and carrying bats, sticks and metal poles - set upon anti-government demonstrators as they returned from another huge march earlier that day.

Footage from the attack circulating on social media showed people screaming as the men beat groups of protesters and journalists in Yuen Long station and inside subway trains, leaving pools of blood on the floor.

Hospital authorities said 45 people were wounded in the attack, with one man in critical condition and five others with serious injuries.

Critics rounded on the city's embattled police force by accusing them of colluding with those who carried out the attack.

Protesters said officers of took more than an hour to reach the station despite frantic calls from those under attack, and then failing to arrest the armed assailants who stayed in the streets around the station into this morning.

Some men in white shirts were later filmed leaving the scene in cars with Chinese mainland number plates.

One video showed pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho shaking hands with the suspected gang members after the the attack, praising them as his heroes.

Witnesses of the attack, including Democratic lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, said the men appeared to target black-shirted passengers who had been at the anti-government march.

Lam, who was wounded in the face and hospitalised, said the police ignored calls he made, pleading with them to intervene and prevent bloodshed.

'They deliberately turned a blind eye to these attacks by triads on regular citizens,' he told Reuters, saying the floors of the station were streaked with blood.

'Their very barbaric and violent acts have already completely violated the bottom line of Hong Kong's civilised society,' he told reporters early today.

A senior district police commander, Yau Nai-keung, said an initial police patrol had to wait reinforcements given a situation involving more than 100 people.

Yau told reporters the police had not made any arrests at the station or during a follow-up search of a nearby village, but were investigating.

Witnesses saw groups of men in white with poles and bamboo staves at the village but Yau said police saw no weapons when they arrived. Following some questioning of the men, they were allowed to leave, he told reporters.

'We can't say you have a problem because you are dressed in white and we have to arrest you. We will treat them fairly no matter which camp they are in,' Yau said.

Furious fellow pro-democracy lawmakers held a press conference on Monday where they accused the city's pro-Beijing leaders of turning a blind eye to the attacks.

'This is triad gangs beating up Hong Kong people,' fumed Alvin Yeung. 'Yet you pretend nothing had happened?'

The clashes have ratcheted up concern that the city's feared triad gangs are wading into the political conflict.

Yuen Long lies in the New Territories near the Chinese border where the criminal gangs and staunchly pro-Beijing rural committees remain influential.

Similar assaults by pro-government vigilantes against demonstrators during the 2014 'Umbrella Movement' protests were blamed on triads.

Hong Kong has been plunged into its worst crisis in recent history by weeks of marches and sporadic violent confrontations between police and pockets of hardcore protesters.

The initial protests were lit by a now-suspended bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, but they have since evolved into a wider movement calling for democratic reforms, universal suffrage and a halt to sliding freedoms in the semi-autonomous territory.

The city's parliament was trashed by protesters earlier this month, as Beijing's authority faces its most serious challenge since Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997.

As the mob rampage unfolded in Yuen Long police were simultaneously battling hardcore democracy protesters in the middle of the city's commercial district.

Riot officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters, hours after China's Hong Kong Liaison Office was daubed with eggs and graffiti in a vivid rebuke to Beijing's rule.

Wang Zhimin, the head of the office, blasted the protesters on Monday, saying they had insulted 'all Chinese people' as he called on Hong Kong's government to pursue the 'rioters'.

Xinhua added the demonstration 'blatantly challenged the authority of the central government' and was 'absolutely intolerable'.

Earlier in the day, another huge and peaceful anti-government march had made its way through the city -- the seventh weekend in a row that residents have come out en masse.

Six weeks of huge protests have done little to persuade the city's unelected leaders -- or Beijing -- to change tack on the hub's future.

Under the 1997 handover deal with Britain, China promised to allow Hong Kong to keep key liberties such as its independent judiciary and freedom of speech.

But many say those provisions are already being curtailed, citing the disappearance into mainland custody of dissident booksellers, the disqualification of prominent politicians and the jailing of pro-democracy protest leaders.

Authorities have also resisted calls for the city's leader to be directly elected by the people.

Protesters have vowed to keep their movement going until their core demands -- such as an independent inquiry into police tactics, an amnesty for those arrested, a permanent withdrawal of the bill, universal suffrage and Lam's resignation -- are met.

There is little sign that either Lam or Beijing will budge.

Beyond agreeing to suspend the extradition bill there have been few other concessions and fears are rising that Beijing's patience is running out. </s> HONG KONG: A group of masked men, many wielding sticks and dressed in white clothes, attacked anti-government protesters and commuters inside a Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway (MTR) station on Sunday night (Jul 21).

At the station in the New Territories district of Yuen Long, screams rang out as protesters who had attended a demonstration earlier in the day were attacked by men in white T-shirts, some armed with poles, as they arrived home.

READ: Tear gas and rubber bullets fired as Hong Kong returns to chaos

READ: Singaporeans in Hong Kong advised to avoid large crowds ahead of planned extradition Bill protest: MFA

The attack has ratcheted up fears that the city's feared triad gangs are wading into the political conflict.

Sunday evening's coordinated assault took place in a district in the city's New Territories near the Chinese border where the criminal gangs remain influential.

Footage showed the men attacking protesters on the platform and inside trains.

A live Facebook broadcast by local news outlet Stand News showed the men charging into a crowd of protesters in Yuen Long, a district in the city's northwest, close to the border with China.

The female reporter who was broadcasting Stand News' footage was one of those attacked as she was knocked to the ground and kicked multiple times.

Lam Cheuk Ting, a Hong Kong opposition lawmaker, live-streamed the scene at Yuen Long MTR station on Facebook.

In the video, people clad in white could be seen violently facing off with black-clad protesters.



Blood could be seen on the station's floor, along with broken batons and debris.

The violence then spread onto a crowded train at a platform, with the people in white seen boarding the train and attacking those on board with sticks and batons and throwing items at them from the platform.

Similar assaults by pro-government vigilantes took place against demonstrators during the 2014 "Umbrella Movement" protests.

The incident at Yuen Long came after tens of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Hong Kong - the seventh weekend in a row that residents have come out en masse amid anger over a controversial extradition Bill.

Late in the evening, thousands defied police orders and marched beyond the official end-point of the rally as they made their way toward the Liaison Office, in a direct challenge to authorities in Beijing.

Some protesters pelted eggs at the walls of the office, while others spray-painted graffiti.

Responding to the "violent acts" in Sheung Wan and Yuen Long, the Hong Kong government issued a statement condemning the violence.

"Following the storming of the CPGLO (Central People's Government Liaison Office) building, some radical protesters initiated a series of violent acts in Sheung Wan area, despite repeated warnings by the police," said the statement. "These outrageous, violent acts included hurling petrol bombs, setting fires and throwing bricks. Thoroughfares were also blocked.



"Meanwhile in Yuen Long, some people congregated at the platforms of the MTR station and train compartments, attacking commuters," said the statement. "It led to confrontations and injuries."

It added: "This is absolutely unacceptable to Hong Kong as a society that observes the rule of law. The SAR government strongly condemns any violence and will seriously take enforcement actions."

The police similarly condemned the incidents, adding that some police officers were injured in the Sheung Wan incident and that protesters had charged police lines and hurled bricks, smoke grenades, petrol bombs and had set fires.

"Meanwhile, assault cases also happened in Yuen Long. Some people attacked commuters at the platforms of the Yuen Long MTR station and train compartments, resulting in multiple injuries," said the police statement published on the Hong Kong government's website.

The city has seen millions turn out in protest over the past months, demonstrating against an extradition Bill to allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland.



Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam has apologised for the turmoil the extradition Bill has caused and declared it "dead". Opponents of the Bill, which they fear could be used to silence dissent, say nothing short of its withdrawal will do.

China has condemned the violent protests as an "undisguised challenge" to the one country, two systems formula.
A mob of suspected masked triad members dressed in white and armed with batons attack commuters indiscriminately at Yuen Long station, injuring 45, including a pro-democracy legislator and a pregnant woman. Hong Kong police have been accused of allowing the violence to happen due to their delayed response and decision to limit emergency services in the area.