雅虎香港電視

A silent sit-in turned chaotic as protesters engaged in a standoff with riot police at Hong Kong’s Yuen Long MTR station on August 21, during a protest marking one month since a mob dressed in white attacked passengers at the station.

Police and demonstrators faced off outside the station, according to tweets by Hong Kong Free Press. Protesters placed construction barricades on the road to impede police progress, and later entered the MTR station proper, discharging fire extinguishers on the ground and upturning rubbish bins to prevent the authorities from following them.

Despite the dramatic scenes at the station, Hong Kong Free Press reported that the majority of protesters departed the area without directly engaging with the police. Footage uploaded by a reporter with the South China Morning Post shows protesters embarking on trains from the station at about 11.15 pm local time.

This footage shows the silent sit-in at the station, as well as the crowds that formed after people barricaded themselves within the station and taunted the police outside by hitting the station ceiling and doors with umbrellas and other objects. Mist from fire extinguishers can also be seen.

The original mob attack in Yuen Long station on July 21 left over 30 people hospitalized, with members of a Triad gang suspected as the attackers. The police were heavily criticized by local residents for not responding to the incident quickly enough, Channel NewsAsia reported. Credit: Galileo Cheng via Storyful