HK leaders apologise for water cannon use at mosque

HONG KONG, Oct 21 (AP): Hong Kong officials apologized to Muslim leaders Monday after riot police sprayed a mosque and bystanders with a water cannon while trying to contain pro-democracy demonstrations in the semiautonomous Chinese city.

The city's leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, and its police chief visited the Kowloon Mosque to say sorry to the chief imam and Muslim community leaders.

They left without commenting but the mosque leaders told reporters that the officials apologized.

"Our mosque is not damaged, nothing is done wrong. Only thing is that they should have not done it. For that they apologized so we accept it," said Saeed Uddin, honorary secretary of the Islamic Community Fund of Hong Kong.

During Sunday's protest, a police water cannon truck that was passing by the mosque suddenly sprayed a stinging blue-dyed liquid at a handful of people standing in front of its gate, according to video of the incident by pro-democracy lawmaker Jeremy Tam.

The mosque's front steps, metal gate and sidewalk outside were stained with the blue liquid while the people caught in the plume were left gagging, coughing and trying to rinse the solution from their eyes, the video shows.

Volunteers later arrived to help clean up, and by Monday morning the blue coating was largely gone.