HONG KONG: Pro-democracy activists clashed with police and barricaded a tunnel near Hong Kong’s government headquarters late on Tuesday, expanding their protest zone again after being cleared out of some other streets in the latest escalation of tensions in a weekslong political crisis.

The demonstrators blocked the underpass with tires, metal and plastic safety barriers and concrete slabs taken from drainage ditches.

Earlier, hundreds of police wearing helmets and holding shields and batons scuffled with the protesters in a brief, tense standoff, according to local television news.

The student-led protesters are now in their third week of occupying key roads and streets in Hong Kong’s business district. Positions on both sides have been hardening since the government called off negotiations last week.

It was not immediately clear what caused on Tuesday night’s standoff.

The government said some protesters suddenly rushed into a road, creating “severe traffic disruption.”

Local news reports said police arrested a protester, angering some other demonstrators, who then tried to take over the tunnel in front of the government headquarters near the entrance to the office of the city’s leader.

The reports said police sent in reinforcements and used pepper spray to try to disperse the protesters but failed and retreated, leaving the tunnel in the hands of a larger crowd of protesters. Hundreds of demonstrators cheered and clapped and raised open umbrellas into the air as the police retreated.

They then began building new barricades to expand their occupied area. Umbrellas have become a symbol of the protests after demonstrators used them to protect themselves against pepper spray and tear gas used by police in an attempt to disperse them two weeks ago.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2014