|
 Scuffles broke out when riot police moved against hundreds of
protesters on Nathan Road, in the gritty Mong Kok district,
following clashes overnight, Reuters witnesses said.
"You can't defeat the protesters' hearts!" screamed Liu Yuk-lin, a
52-year-old protester in a hard hat holding a yellow umbrella, the
symbol of the movement, as she stood before lines of police in
helmets and goggles.
But there was no serious violence, and after about three hours the
operation was complete and traffic was flowing through as area where
demonstrators had camped out since late September to call for
greater democracy in the former British colony.
Mong Kok has been a flashpoint for clashes between students and mobs
intent on breaking up the protests, which have posed one of the
biggest challenges to China's Communist Party leaders since the
crushing of student-led pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing in
1989.
Crowds nearby cheered and clapped as the final protesters were
removed from the site on Wednesday.
 Earlier, court-appointed bailiffs had warned protesters to leave and
around 80 workers in red caps and "I love Hong Kong" T-shirts began
clearing metal and wooden barricades laid across Nathan Road, where
hundreds of tents had been erected in a two-month civil disobedience
campaign.
They had been met by hundreds of protesters brandishing yellow
banners and chanting for "full democracy".
"If you resist you face possible imprisonment. We warn you to
immediately stop resisting," said a policeman into a loud hailer
before jeering activists.
Several protesters who resisted were hauled away, witnesses said.
Hong Kong's Cable TV said 4,000 police were involved.
A Reuters witness saw police take away Shum, and the Facebook page
of the student group Scholarism announced that Wong had been
arrested for contempt of court.
Although the protests have had no formal leadership structure, Wong
and Shum were part of a group of students who many looked to as the
movement's de facto leaders.
"WE HAVE PLAN B"
The clearance of the Mong Kok site is a big breakthrough in the
authorities' efforts to end the most tenacious protest movement in
Hong Kong's recent history, although it could trigger retaliatory
protests elsewhere as the activists regroup.
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"It's not the end," said Helen Lau, a young activist with a leather
yellow ribbon around her neck, who was shouting at police and
demanding to re-enter the cleared area. "We still have plan B;
either to occupy other places or to step up our actions."
Protesters still occupy segments of roads, blocking traffic, in the
city's Admiralty district near government offices and Causeway Bay,
a major shopping area.
It was not clear if or when police might try to clear the remaining
protest sites.
Overnight, police had arrested 80 protesters in running clashes in
Mong Kok following the clearance of part of a nearby street the
previous day.
The crowded, working class district has been the scene of some of
the most violent confrontations in the two-month long "Occupy
Central" civil disobedience campaign.
The pro-democracy movement is showing signs of splintering, with
radical voices calling for escalated action after nearly two months
of stalemate in their campaign for full democracy.
In August, Beijing offered the people of Hong Kong, which reverted
to Chinese rule in 1997, the chance to vote for their own leader in
2017, but said only two to three candidates could run after getting
majority backing from a 1,200-person "nominating committee" stacked
with Beijing loyalists.
More than 100,000 people took to the streets at the peak of the
protests, but numbers have dropped to a few hundred scattered in
tents over three main sites.
(Additional reporting by Twinnie Siu, James Pomfret and Venus Wu;
Writing by John Ruwitch; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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