Hong Kong 'Occupy' leader Benny Tai admits protest out of control amid traffic paralysis
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Traffic stands still as tens of thousands of protesters jam the main street leading to the financial Central district outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong on Sept 28, 2014. The leader of the "Occupy Central" civil disobedience movement, Benny Tai, admitted on Sunday that the movement was going "out of control" after protestors fanned out of designated protest zones and paralysed parts of Hong Kong's central business district, Hong Kong media reported. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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A major thoroughfare, Harcourt Road, next to the government headquarters in Admiralty has been brought to a standstill, occupied by tens of thousands of people. They are trying to charge the security fences fronted by riot police. Pepper spray is being used. -- ST PHOTO: LI XUEYING
Traffic stands still as tens of thousands of protesters jam the main street leading to the financial Central district outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong on Sept 28, 2014. The leader of the "Occupy Central" civil disobedience movement, Benny Tai, admitted on Sunday that the movement was going "out of control" after protestors fanned out of designated protest zones and paralysed parts of Hong Kong's central business district, Hong Kong media reported. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
A major thoroughfare, Harcourt Road, next to the government headquarters in Admiralty has been brought to a standstill, occupied by tens of thousands of people. They are trying to charge the security fences fronted by riot police. Pepper spray is being used. -- ST PHOTO: LI XUEYING
HONG KONG - The leader of the "Occupy Central" civil disobedience movement, Benny Tai, admitted on Sunday that the movement was going "out of control" after protestors fanned out of designated protest zones and paralysed parts of Hong Kong's central business district, Hong Kong media reported.
Major roads affected include Queensway, Gloucester Rd and Connaught Rd, where some traffic had come to a complete halt, Radio Television HongKong (RTHK) reported. Marchers on Queensway were heading towards Central.
After Tamar was declared a 'no-go' area by police, more than a thousand demonstrators gathered in and around Admiralty Centre, as police formed a human wall to contain them, the report said.
But police officers were forced onto Gloucester Road as protesters charged at them, said RTHK. The Federation of Students, a co-organiser of the protest, said some 30,000 pro-democracy protesters and supporters were in and around the Admiralty, Tamar and north Wanchai area.
Tai was quoted by Ming Pao Daily News as saying that the situation had "gone out of control". But he said he was "touched" by the "overwhelming" support from the people.
The protest, originally scheduled to start on Oct 1, China's National Day, had started at 1.40am on Sunday morning, when Occupy Central organisers made the announcement at a rally in Tim Mei Avenue in Admiralty.
Tai said organisers changed the timing of the civil disobedience protest in light of the students' protest actions last week, which culminated in the arrest and forced removal of dozens of protestors from the government's headquarters on Saturday.
