Police in Hong Kong have cleared dozens of protesters who had been holding out at government headquarters after storming the complex, as a week-long protest against Beijing's refusal to grant the city unfettered democracy turned angry.
Police escorted the remaining 50 demonstrators from the building's forecourt on Saturday afternoon, hauling some of them away after they refused to leave.
Up to a thousand other protesters remained camped outside the government complex, booing the police through the fence as they began rounding up the remaining demonstrators.
"Police should catch thieves, not students!" the crowds shouted.
The early hours had seen the tensest scenes yet in a string of recent protests, with riot police using pepper spray to clear out more than 100 people who had pushed into the grounds of the complex, some of them scaling a high fence.
Police had dragged many away overnight and into the morning, making 13 arrests.
Student groups have been spearheading a civil disobedience campaign this week in response to Beijing's announcement last month that it will choose who can stand in elections for Hong Kong's leader in 2017.
More than 2000 protesters, many of them secondary school pupils and university students, had protested at the city's main government headquarters on Friday, culminating with around 150 demonstrators breaking through police lines to occupy its forecourt late on Friday night.
Police said the 13 arrested were aged between 16 and 35 and detained for forcible entry into government premises, disorderly conduct in public place and assaulting a police officer.
Among those arrested was a prominent student leader, 17-year-old Joshua Wong.
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