Update - Calm Returns To Hk Protest Site After Overnight Scuffles

After a night of violent clashes between hundreds of police and thousands of pro-democracy protesters, some calm had returned Saturday afternoon as both sides continued to guard their lines and demonstrators occupied a section of a major road in the neighborhood of Mong Kok.



Scuffles repeatedly erupted between police and protesters overnight. Police charged protesters numerous times, using batons and pepper spray to try to force demonstrators to disperse.



Police said 26 people were arrested.



In a press release issued in the afternoon, Police Commissioner Tsang Wai-hung criticized those he accused of having charged a police cordon and illegally occupied major thoroughfares in Mong Kok.



"Such behaviors are neither peaceful nor non-violent. They seriously undermined public order and seriously jeopardized public safety," he said, adding that police had been "extremely tolerant" in hopes that the protesters "can calm down and express their view in an otherwise peaceful, rational and lawful manner."



Protester Leslie, who works for a bank and declined to give his surname for privacy reasons, told The Anadolu Agency a policeman had hit him with a baton just below his left ear once and in the ribs twice as officers charged.  



Police estimated the number of demonstrators at 9,000 -- what some considered an overestimate.



Independent lawmaker Raymond Wong Yuk-man, at the scene late Friday, told AA he thought there were 3,000 to 5,000 demonstrators.



Protesters now occupy a 550-metre stretch of Nathan Road, the major thoroughfare on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong, across Victoria Harbour from Hong Kong Island.



Protesters were trying to reclaim the streets after police moved in to clear tents and barricades early on Friday.



"We [protesters] lost this place but we have come back. Some people may not agree with us because we cause inconvenience. But we will persist with what we think is right," said Mr. Chan, an accountant who did not provide his first name for privacy reasons.



Mong Kok had been the site of scuffles between protesters and opposition groups during the almost three weeks of rallies.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Hong Kong