HONG KONG - Hong Kong's Airport Authority said on Wednesday it had obtained an interim injunction to stop people from obstructing operations as Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) resumed operations on Wednesday, rescheduling hundreds of flights that had been disrupted over the past two days as protesters clashed with riot police.
The injunction order issued by a Hong Kong court prohibits any person from unlawfully and willfully obstructing and interfering with proper use of the airport, according to a statement issued by the Airport Authority on Wednesday morning
According to a statement issued by the Airport Authority on Wednesday around 8:30 am, the injunction order issued by a Hong Kong court prohibits any person from unlawfully and willfully obstructing and interfering with proper use of the airport.
The authority is in the process of obtaining sealed copies of the injunction order, according to the statement.
"Persons are also restrained from attending or participating in any demonstration or protest or public order event in the airport other than in the area designated by the airport authority," it said in the statement.
A few dozen protesters were still camped out in the terminals’ public areas Wednesday morning, with most having cleared out before the trains back to the city centers stopped running. Most banners were gone. Workers scrubbed it clean of blood and debris from overnight.
Check-in counters reopened shortly after 6 am to queues of hundreds of weary travellers who had waited overnight for their flights.
Global Times reporter Fu Guohao has his wrists bound with cable ties by rioters at Hong Kong International Airport on Aug 13, 2019. Fu voiced his support for the Hong Kong Police Force and told his captors, “You can start beating me up now.”(PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government severely condemned violence at HKIA on Tuesday night, saying such acts were“outrageous and had overstepped the bottom line of a civilized society”. In a statement issued around 3 am Wednesday, the government vowed to take relentless enforcement action to bring the perpetrators to justice.
In a statement released around an hour later, police condemned violent acts by protesters overnight and said on Wednesday a large group had "harassed and assaulted a visitor and a journalist".
Five people were detained, police said, bringing the number of people arrested since the protests began in June to more than 600.
Protesters accused one man of being an undercover police officer from the mainland. But the editor-in-chief of the Chinese and English editions of the Global Times said he’s a reporter for the paper. “He has no other task except for reporting,” Hu Xijin said in a tweet.
He was tied up and beaten by protesters and was evacuated by paramedics around 12.30 am. He appeared conscious as he was carried away on a stretcher.
A couple of hours earlier, protesters beat and tied up a man they said was a mainland police officer who was pretending to be one of them. They prevented paramedics for hours from evacuating the man while shouting “You’ll bear the consequences for your own actions.”
As medics carrying the man on a stretcher pushed their way through crowds to an ambulance waiting outside, scuffles broke out between remaining police and protesters. Most of the protesters left after officers armed with pepper spray and swinging batons tried to enter the terminal, fighting with demonstrators who barricaded entrances with luggage carts. Riot police clashed briefly with the demonstrators.
A police officer was assaulted and his baton was snatched. In order to protect himself from threats to life or serious injury, the officer withdrew a pistol and stayed on guard.
The airport had closed check-in for remaining flights late Tuesday afternoon as protesters swarmed the terminal and blocked access to immigration for departing passengers. Tuesday's cancelations were in addition to 200 flights backlogged from Monday.
