Hong Kong police descended on Victoria Park on Friday in an operation to deter residents from congregating at the venue that was for years the site of an annual candlelight vigil to mark the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Small police teams, of about two or three officers each, were seen on Friday morning patrolling inside the peaceful Victoria Park in Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island. No searches were conducted.

The manpower increased around noon, with at least 20 police vehicles parked along Causeway Road outside the park.

At around 2 p.m., large numbers of police officers arrived. Many of the uniformed officers carried flags commonly used during public assembly, including the purple flag that served to warn protesters about actions which would break the city’s national security law.

The police announced over a loudspeaker that they were cordoning off the park’s central lawn, six football pitches and four basketball courts, as well as the jogging track and other linked pathways. All these areas were used in the past to accommodate participants of the mass vigil.

People who entered the restricted areas after 2 p.m. would be in breach of the law, the police warned.

News reports previously said the force was mobilizing 7,000 officers on June 4 to snuff out any attempts at gathering for a vigil.

As some members of the public were already hanging out in the park when the officers turned up, they were all intercepted. Officers searched their bags and recorded their belongings with camcorders.

A woman surnamed Lee said she was stopped and searched. She was carrying a piece of paper printed with a poem, the content of which police officers said was sensitive. They noted down Lee’s personal details and asked her to leave the park.

For the second year in a row, the authorities have banned the annual commemorative assembly, citing risks associated with the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier on Friday, Terry Law, senior superintendent in charge of crime at the New Territories South Regional Headquarters, conducted a media briefing saying the force on May 27 banned a planned June 4 public rally by the alliance, and that the decision was upheld two days later following the organizers’ appeal.

In the subsequent days, the police noticed that people were continuing to promote and encourage residents’ participation in a banned public activity.

The police emphasized that a jail term of up to five years awaited anyone who was found guilty of taking part in a banned public activity or an unauthorized assembly. People who defied pandemic control measures to join a gathering could be fined HK$5,000.

Meanwhile, community-level activities to commemorate victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre had spread across the city. District councilors distributed white candles and organizations set up street booths.

Seven Catholic churches will be holding mass services in the evening to let Hongkongers mourn those who died in Beijing in the June 4, 1989, military crackdown.

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