Inside the clashes in Hong Kong: ‘Please broadcast this to the world’

WATCH ABOVE: A series of violent confrontations in the streets of Hong Kong have only served to galvanize supporters of the so-called “Umbrella Protests”. Tom Clark has the story.

The taxi dropped me off about a block from the Occupy protest in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong.  I could already see the massive crowd at the next intersection.  As I walked closer, I could hear the roar.

The crowd was as loud as it was large.

It all started earlier Friday with reports of residents, frustrated with the protests, tearing down the supply tents and the barricades in Mong Kok.  Fights broke out.  It was a violent scene very unlike what the world has witnessed for the past week in Hong Kong.

READ MORE: Hong Kong protesters cancel talks with government

Police eventually formed a human chain between the two groups but there was yelling and pushing and shoving.  Twice our cameraman Nicolas got swept up as the angry anti-protest group tried to surge through the police line.

We pushed our way to a corridor police had made to escort members of the pro-democracy camp who wanted to leave safely through the masses surrounding them.  Police let us duck under the tape marking the space.  Standing there, the tension became even more palpable.

Every time somebody walked along that corridor with police at their side, the crowds past the tape roared, yelling and gesturing at the protester walking past.  Police officers would at times run past us to break up a clash.

We ducked back into the crowd, as a man walked up to us and said in English: “Please broadcast this to the world.”

He said he supports the pro-democracy group, and was visibly upset about the violence that had broken out.

We pushed through the crowd and the police again to find the small group of people refusing to abandon their post despite the threat around them.  We found them under a blue and white striped tent.

VIDEO GALLERY:

Suddenly they started yelling at the angry throng around them.  Police were yelling too.

“They are saying ‘stop throwing things at us,'” a young man told me.  Quickly the yelling stopped, and so did the projectiles.

This is where the tension peaked; with this small but stubborn group in the middle of a massive angry crowd.  The protesters insisted they were not going anywhere despite calls from their movement’s organizers to head to the central location where everyone could protect each other.

From the looks of it, the people who want them out aren’t budging either.

Global News’ Jennifer Madigan is in Hong Kong covering the protests. For updates, follow https://twitter.com/JLMadigan