November 2, 2019 | 2:44pm
Some of the worst violence in 22 weeks of protest erupted in Hong Kong Saturday, as police responded with tear gas to activists throwing Molotov cocktails and setting fire to street barricades and a subway station.
Reuters reported that peaceful protests featuring families making origami paper cranes in a park devolved into a battle between anti-government protesters and police.
“Some masked rioters vandalized shops and committed arson. Some even placed nails on the roads threatening the safety of all road users,” police said in a statement.
The protesters, angry at Chinese meddling with Hong Kong’s freedoms, threw the homemade bombs on the streets in front of the headquarters of HSBC and the Hong Kong base for the Bank of China. Protesters also smashed the windows of China’s local branch of the Xinhua news agency for the first time, the Associated Press reported.
Activists set fire to an entrance of the MTR metro’s Central station, graffitied the walls and vandalized a second station. The MTR is often a target of protesters because it shuts down services to stop people from joining protests. Central Station was closed Saturday evening.
At Victoria Park, a traditional site for protests and rallies, some people sang the British and U.S. national anthems, waving multi-national flags and a few called for independence. Chinese Communist Party leaders in Beijing have vowed to “crush the bones” of anyone pursuing independence.
