Hong Kong: 12-year-old girl's arrest by police criticised

Hong Kong police tackled a 12-year old girl to the ground and arrested her on Sunday amid a protests against delayed parliamentary elections.

A video widely shared online shows riot police pushing the youngster to the ground as she tried to dash away. She was later charged for allegedly violating coronavirus social distancing rules, police said.

But her mother told local media: “She was just trying to buy art supplies with her brother."

The video has sparked outrage online, gathering over a million views on Twitter. On the local Reddit-like forum LIHKG, one commenter criticised the police for being "loud and impolite" as if a "mad dog chasing after people who run."

In a statement on Facebook, the police said the girl was running in a "suspicious manner" that required officers to chase and subdue her with the use of "minimum force".

The arrest came amid demonstrations against delayed parliamentary elections, with hundreds of protesters facing off against thousands of riot police.

Around 290 people were arrested in the biggest single-day sweep since early July, in one of the largest demonstrations since a draconian national security law was imposed by Beijing on the territory.

The new law, introduced July 1, criminalises acts deemed as secession, subversion, terrrorism and foreign collusion, making them punishable by life imprisonment.