Some were not protesters, not that it would have been justified had they been.
Video from inside the train circulated in telegram group. #HongKongProtest #antiELABhk #hkpolicebrutality #chinazi pic.twitter.com/N1wmFtUSIC
— DavChu (@DavChu) August 31, 2019
This is what happened on the platform when #HKpolice rushed into Prince Edward Station. #terroristhkpolice #antiELABhk #HongKongProtests
Video by @SocRECorg pic.twitter.com/VoEgv96ZfV
— DavChu (@DavChu) September 1, 2019
The video footage that flooded social media and television screens was harrowing: passengers cowering on the ground inside a train carriage, huddling and hugging each other.
Black clad special forces police storm through the train, wielding batons. More police, dubbed “raptors” by Hong Kong’s protest movement, stand at the doorways of the carriage – the only escape route – and spray pepper spray directly at screaming passengers.
A station announcer calls out repeatedly that it is an emergency.
More video shows police striking a protester already on the ground, squashed beneath a scrum of police knees. When they realise a South China Morning Post reporter is videoing the scene, they try to block his camera.
Passengers with bleeding head wounds emerge from a train and are bandaged by medics. Rows of people are lined against a wall on the concourse to have their hands bound with cable ties. Medics are also forced to face the wall. Then the shutters come down, police evict medics and journalists.
These scenes, at MTR stations at Prince Edward and Yau Ma Tei around 10pm on Saturday evening, dominated Hong Kongers conversations the next day. The subway stations remained closed. People said they were horrified. MTR stations are middle class Hong Kong’s hallowed ground – efficient, clean, safe. Shopping malls and apartments tower above many stations.