At least two MTR stations will shut early ahead of Halloween protests in the city tonight.
According to an MTR alert yesterday evening, Central station will shut at 9pm, while Prince Edward station will shut at 2pm. All MTR services including buses and light rail will shut earlier than usual, at 11pm.
The decision to close Central station comes amid calls by protesters to hold a Halloween masquerade party in the form of a march starting at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay and ending in the nightlife district of Lan Kwai Fong in Central.
Participants are encouraged to wear masks — technically illegal under a widely panned ban on face masks in public areas introduced at the beginning of this month in a bid to clamp down on long-running anti-government protests.
Protesters have also called on people to gather at Prince Edward station to commemorate Aug. 31, which is remembered by some as being one of the worst nights of police violence against protesters, with officers were seen charging through the station to make arrests, and beating and pepper spraying commuters inside an MTR carriage.
Some in the protester camp have stubbornly clung to the belief that officers beat protesters to death inside the MTR station during the operation, though there is no evidence any such killings took place. Authorities have continuously denied the allegations, but that has done nothing to quell protesters’ concerns, and some have continued to demand the railway corporation release CCTV footage from that night.
The MTR and police are not the only ones who’ve been spooked, with Ocean Park announcing last night that their Halloween Fest event would be canceled amid fears of protests at the theme park.
Just in: The Ocean Park Halloween Fest will be cancelled on Halloween! It has been circulating online that Ocean Park performers will stage a strike tomorrow to protest against the extradition bill and express their five #antiELAB demands. #HongKongProtests pic.twitter.com/QMBAj6Q32o
— Ezra Cheung (@ezracheungtoto) October 30, 2019
The decision came after managers at the amusement park were accused on social media of censoring parts of a script for one of the shows to remove references to the protests.
According to HK01, users claimed one of the excised bits was the chant “Hongkongers, add oil,” a popular all-purpose shout of encouragement in Cantonese, but one that has become associated with protesters. Whether the show had actually been censored was unclear, and Ocean Park denied the allegations, but calls circulated to stage flash protests at the park nonetheless.
In a statement issued on Wednesday night, the park cited the current unrest and the possibility of protests across Hong Kong Island as the reason for cancelling the event.
