Hong Kong Students Vow Mong Kok Comeback After Police Clear Protest Site

Honk Kong students vowed to re-establish a protest camp in a volatile district after police moved to clear barricades, arresting more than 100 people.

Demonstrators scuffled with security forces that, acting on court orders, cleared occupied areas in Mong Kok.

Authorities said they held a total of 116 people accused of unlawful assembly and assaulting or obstructing police, during the two-day operation.

Pro-democracy activists said prominent student leaders Joshua Wong and Lester Shum were among those detained.

Nevertheless, some students remained defiant and pledged to keep on fighting for democratic reforms in the Chinese territory.

"I will come back later. We cannot lose Mong Kok no matter what," protester Kumi Lam told the South China Morning Post.

"I am sure more people will be come back out tonight," added student Hau Cheuk-Yu.

Mass demonstrations started this summer, after Beijing backtracked on a pledged to allow Hong Kongers to democratically elect their leader.

China, which has ruled over the former British colony according to the so-called "one country, two systems" policy since the handover in 1997, had promised to grant universal suffrage to the city by 2017.

The vote to replace current leader Leung Chun-ying will eventually be the first in which voters will directly choose the winner.

However, pro-democracy activists say that China hasn't kept its promises, as candidates will be preventively screened by a pro-Beijing committee that will most likely ban opposition leaders from running.