AFP :
The founder of a banned Hong Kong independence party has been arrested in a raid where offensive weapons and explosives were found, a senior police source told AFP Friday, as the city reels from weeks of anti-government protests.
In a statement, police said eight people-seven men and one woman-were arrested at an industrial building on Thursday evening in the district of Sha Tin on charges of possession of an offensive weapon and possession of explosives without a licence.
The statement did not identify the individuals arrested. But a senior police source told AFP that independence activist Andy Chan was among those detained.
“Andy Chan was arrested inside a premise with (a) gasoline bomb seized,” the source said, asking not to be identified. Chan’s independence party-the Hong Kong National Party-was outlawed last year on the grounds it posed a national security threat, the first such ban since 1997.
The founder of a banned Hong Kong independence party has been arrested in a raid where offensive weapons and explosives were found, a senior police source told AFP Friday, as the city reels from weeks of anti-government protests.
In a statement, police said eight people-seven men and one woman-were arrested at an industrial building on Thursday evening in the district of Sha Tin on charges of possession of an offensive weapon and possession of explosives without a licence.
The statement did not identify the individuals arrested. But a senior police source told AFP that independence activist Andy Chan was among those detained.
“Andy Chan was arrested inside a premise with (a) gasoline bomb seized,” the source said, asking not to be identified. Chan’s independence party-the Hong Kong National Party-was outlawed last year on the grounds it posed a national security threat, the first such ban since 1997.
