Riotous mobs set fires near the Wan Chai police headquarters, Hong Kong, Aug 31, 2019. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

After another weekend of vandalism and unrest, officials and citizens in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region strongly condemned the violence that has dragged the city into chaos. 

Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu said a “black terror” had taken hold over the weekend as the violence became very serious and rocked the city and “completely undermined the SAR’s rule of law”. 

Lee made the remarks at an interdepartmental news conference on Monday. 

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Some 100 gasoline bombs were hurled at police officers by violent radicals over the weekend. Many rioters started fires in different locations across the city. They also attacked officers with bricks and corrosive liquids. Such actions pose a serious threat to public safety, Lee said. 

The Hong Kong government issued the “strongest condemnation” of extreme acts and violence by radical protesters over the weekend 

Violent protesters attacked people holding different views, creating an atmosphere of “black terror” in Hong Kong, Lee said. In mid-August, Yang Guang, spokesman for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, the nation’s top authority on Hong Kong affairs, warned that the violence has shown the “first signs of terrorism”, commenting on the city’s escalating acts of violence triggered by the nowshelved extraditionamendment bill. 

Facing such a severe situation, Lee urged the public to speak up against violence.

Finding an excuse for violence is tantamount to encouraging it, said Lee. It will only push Hong Kong closer to utter chaos, he added.

Over the weekend, 159 people were detained on suspicion of committing offenses that included possessing offensive weapons, taking part in an unlawful assembly, and obstructing or assaulting police officers, police said at a news conference on Monday. 

Police had arrested 1,117 people in relation to the protests that started in mid-June. 

The Fire Services Department said it had received 14 reports of fire incidents on Saturday and Sunday.

The Hong Kong government issued the “strongest condemnation” of extreme acts and violence by radical protesters over the weekend. 

Radicals have brazenly subverted the rule of law and disrupted law and order, said Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung. 

The government and police will strictly investigate these illegal acts and bring the offenders to justice, Cheung pledged. 

Radical protesters paralyzed traffic to and disrupted operations at Hong Kong International Airport, causing the cancellation of 25 flights and delaying about 200 flights on Sunday, Secretary for Transport and Housing Frank Chan Fan said. 

More than a third of the city’s 90 subway stations were also damaged. 

Chan said it was “absolutely unacceptable” for radicals to ignore the court’s injunction against protests at the airport and on the subway network. He said the SAR government is seeking other strategies to guarantee normal transport operations. 

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A taxi driver surnamed Shum, working on Lantau Island near the airport, said he was worried when he saw blackclad, masked protesters occupy roads on Sunday. “I was afraid they might vandalize my car,” said Shum, who finished work around 3 pm to avoid any major problems. 

A Tung Chung resident surnamed Chan, 73, said the violence and vandalism at the Tung Chung MTR station are “disgraceful”, given that the subway is the most important link between Lantau Island and other parts of the city. 

“Tung Chung has always been a peaceful place. However, they destroyed it,” she said. 

An Irish passenger surnamed Anderson was among many people stranded at the airport. She was annoyed her travel plans were disrupted by protesters who paralyzed the airport’s railway links. It took Anderson and her family an extra two hours to get to their hotel.