HK students storm govt HQ, scores arrested, 29 injured

HONG KONG, Sep 27 (agencies): Riot police in Hong Kong Saturday arrested scores of students who stormed the government headquarters compound during a night of scuffles to protest China's refusal to allow genuine democratic reforms in the semiautonomous city.
 More than 100 other protesters, however, showed no sign of leaving the area surrounding the square where the government complex is located, and chanted at police to stop arresting their colleagues.
 The dispersal followed a night of scuffles between police and about 150 protesters who forced their way into the government compound, some scaling a tall fence. Police on Friday night responded with pepper spray to push them back, but about 50 had remained inside the gated premises. At least 29 people have been injured since Friday night, police said.
Hong Kong Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok told reporters that police acted appropriately and gave students sufficient warning before starting the process of clearing the square.
Police used pepper spray as the protesters smashed barriers and climbed over fences in chaotic scenes in the heart of the Asian financial centre, following Beijing's decision to rule out free elections for the city's leader in 2017.
One student leader, Joshua Wong, a thin 17-year-old with dark-rimmed glasses and bowl-cut hair, was dragged away by police kicking and screaming as protesters chanted and struggled to free him.
The mayhem came after more than a thousand school children rallied to support tertiary students, who launched a class boycott to call for electoral reforms with a demonstration on Monday that drew about 13,000.
Hong Kong was returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997 with a promise of a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China under a formula known as "one country, two systems". It envisaged universal suffrage as an eventual goal.
But Beijing last month rejected demands for people to freely choose the city's next leader in 2017, prompting threats from pro-democracy activists to shut down the Central financial district. China wants to limit elections to a handful of candidates loyal to Beijing.