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A Hong Kong protestor throwing a Molotov cocktail at the riot police in the new town of Tseung Kwan O, Sunday, October 13. REUTERS / Athit Perawongmetha

After a few quiet days in the middle of last week, several violent clashes took place again this weekend between the police and the protesters, not on the island of Hong Kong but on the mainland. An authorized demonstration was to take place this Monday, October 14 in Central.

With our correspondent in Hong Kong, Florence de Changy

The weekend ended with 37 of the 94 closed metro stations. Counting these, it has become a new way to evaluate the seriousness of the disorders.

The protesters took the slogan Sunday to go " shopping " in 19 shopping centers spread throughout the territory of the special administrative region. " Shopping " is a code.

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The situation has seriously degenerated in more than a dozen places. As for several weeks, protesters have targeted and broken cash machines and agencies of the Bank of China.

But also the restaurants belonging to the chain Maxim's, because of anti-demonstrations of the daughter of the founder, or to a Chinese group from Fujian province, suspected of being mafia and anti-protesters.

This weekend, protesters also vandalized the offices of a pro-Beijing MP, Eunice Yung, and the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei's shops.

Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong, October 13, 2019. REUTERS / Athit Perawongmetha

An explosion of a new kind, and stronger than the usual Molotov cocktails, took place between two police trucks. The latter then found several elements seem to be a homemade bomb.

This would mark an expansion of the arsenal at the disposal of the most violent demonstrators, who already use bricks and Molotov cocktails. In Kwun Tong, a policeman was attacked in the neck by a demonstrator armed with a knife.

The government, which said it was " outraged " by these new acts of violence, reaffirmed its intention to control these " rioters " and once again called on the Hong Kong people to dissociate themselves from the protesters.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who traveled to Nepal for the first time in 23 years, said on Sunday that " whoever will try to divide China will be reduced to mush ."

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