Thousands of prodemocracy activists clashed with police during running scuffles in Hong Kong's gritty Mong Kok district early Saturday in a bid to reclaim part of one of the city's largest and most volatile protest sites.
After a tense standoff lasting hours, chaos erupted as hundreds of riot police baton-charged demonstrators with shields, pepper spraying and wrestling a string of them to the ground.
The clampdown only stoked more protests, and a three-hour march by hundreds of people calling for "real full democracy" helped put the city's 28,000-strong police force further on edge.