Protesters 'were determined to cause mayhem'

Protesters who turned Hong Kong into a battleground on Feb 9 were determined to cause mayhem with flammable liquids and by blocking firefighters, David Lai Man-hin, the city's director of fire services, said on Thursday.

Twenty-two reports of fires were received that night and responses to all alarms were delayed by five to 60 minutes because of the protesters, who were throwing bricks and bottles, according to Fire Service Department statistics.

Some protesters even used flammable liquids, making it harder to control the situation, while a liquefied petroleum gas taxi was also set on fire, putting people in the vicinity in great danger if the situation had not been controlled by firefighters, Lai said.