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Police set up cordons at illegally occupied areas near the government headquarters building in Admiralty. (Edmond Tang / China Daily) |
The full clearance of the large occupation camps at Admiralty by court bailiffs and police was relatively uneventful — compared with violent stand-offs between activists and police in Mong Kok and Admiralty over the past 10 weeks.
The demise of the illegal occupation in Admiralty began on Thursday morning. Court bailiffs and workers, hired by a bus company, dismantled barricades and reopened roads near Central. The area outlined in the injunction order had earlier been vacated by protesters.
Police took the initiative after 2 pm. Moving into the heart of the protest zone from all directions, officers swiftly broke up roadblocks and recovered government property. Most tents, furniture and supplies left behind by protesters were trashed.
A total of 1,118 protesters remained in the protest zone after it was cordoned off. But they offered no resistance. They either walked away or joined a sit-in staged by opposition politicians.
Around 9 pm, police arrested and escorted the last protester away. Traffic on Harcourt Road, Hong Kong Island’s coastal trunk road, also fully resumed after 75 days of disruption.
Causeway Bay now remains the last bastion of the doomed movement.
