Police report arson attacks, vandalism overnight in Hong Kong

In a news release on Thursday morning, the police said Three people - a 15-year-old girl, a 16-year-old boy and a 29-year-old man - were arrested in connection with vandalising public buses.

Police guard in front of a bus stop, in Hong Kong on December 9, the morning after hundreds of thousands of demonstrators crammed into Hong Kong’s streets, their chants echoing off high-rises, in a mass show of support for the protest movement entering its seventh month.

Hong Kong police said they arrested three people in connection with arson and vandalism in Kowloon late Wednesday.

In a news release on Thursday morning, the police said Three people - a 15-year-old girl, a 16-year-old boy and a 29-year-old man - were arrested in connection with vandalising public buses. A fourth person escaped, police said.

According to police reports the four boarded buses, pressed the emergency buttons, then began smashing windows with hammers.

Police also said they received reports that five people threw petrol bombs at a Japanese restaurant on the street level of a shopping mall in Cheung Sha Wan. There were no reported injuries.

Police said several other people started a fire at a street junction in Mong Kok, an area that has regularly been the site of violent clashes between protesters and police during more than six months of social unrest in the Chinese-ruled city.