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Public anger towards the police in particular has intensified in recent weeks after officers failed to stop a mob attack on protesters and bystanders at another train station. Police across the city are now routinely met with calls of "mafia" and "corrupt cops".
Human rights groups have criticised the officers' actions, saying that the people were not offering resistance.
Protesters burn paper money to pay their respects for protesters who were injured on Aug 31 outside Prince Edward station in Hong Kong on Friday.Credit:AP
Elsewhere in the city, hundreds of protesters gathered in a mostly peaceful rally in the city's central business district chanting slogans like "Reclaim Hong Kong, revolution of our times!" and "Five demands, not one less!"
The protests were an early test of public sentiment since Carrie Lam announced on Wednesday her four-point plan to ease the tensions that have plunged this former British colony into its worst crisis since it returned to Chinese rule in 1997. The demonstrations have badly battered Hong Kong's economy, which suffered another blow on Friday when Fitch Ratings downgraded its credit rating for the territory.
The ratings agency Fitch on Friday cut Hong Kong's credit rating and warned that conflict with anti-government protesters was hurting the image of its business climate. Credit:AP
In subsequent remarks on Thursday, Lam urged peaceful demonstrators not to legitimise "the really violent protesters," in what some saw as an attempt to sow divisions in the movement.
But many moderate protesters have vowed to maintain a united front, saying that they would only be satisfied once all demonstrators' demands were met.
The protesters' five demands
- Withdraw the Extradition Bill (promised)
- A halt to categorising protests as "riots"
- A probe into police brutality
- The release of protesters who have been detained
- Direct elections to choose city's leaders
"It doesn't matter what the government or the police do, it can't reduce the tensions. Hong Kong people will never forget what happened these past few months," Jenny Liu, a 23-year-old recent university graduate said.
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Police have now arrested more than 1000 protesters since June.
On Friday on a visit to China, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, called for a peaceful solution to the crisis.
"Every effort must be made to avoid violence," Merkel told a joint press conference after talks with Li Keqiang, the Chinese Premier, in Beijing. "The people of Hong Kong must be granted their rights and freedoms."
Li called for an end to "the violence and chaos", and insisted the world "needs to believe that the Chinese people have the ability and wisdom to handle their own matters well".
The New York Times; Telegraph, London