Hong Kong students storm government HQ to demand full democracy

Over 100 pro-democracy students stormed Hong Kong government headquarters and scuffled with police late on Friday in protest against the Chinese government's tightening grip on the former British colony.

Police used pepper spray on protesters who forced their way through a gate and scaled high fences surrounding the compound to oppose Beijing's decision to rule out free elections for the city's leader in 2017.

Student leader Joshua Wong was dragged away by police kicking, screaming and bleeding from his arm as protesters chanted and struggled to free him.

"Hong Kong's future belongs to you, you and you," Wong, a thin 17-year-old with dark-rimmed glasses and bowl-cut hair, told cheering supporters hours before he was taken away.

"I want to tell C.Y. Leung and Xi Jinping that the mission of fighting for universal suffrage does not rest upon the young people, it is everyone's responsibility," he shouted, referring to Hong Kong's and China's leaders.

"I don't want the fight for democracy to be passed down to the next generation. This is our responsibility,"

About 100 protesters linked arms as police surrounded them with metal barricades, some chanting "civil disobedience".

In the early hours of Saturday, about a thousand students remained outside the government headquarters.

SCHOOL PUPILS RALLY

At least four people were carried off on stretchers with slight injuries. The scene marked the biggest escalation in street protests since Beijing's decision in late August to rule out free elections for Hong Kong.

About 100 protesters remained within the compound while thousands of supporters outside chanted: "Free the people."

"We're still demanding universal suffrage," said Hong Kong Federation of Students leader Alex Chow.

The protest came after more than 1,000 school pupils rallied to support university students demanding full democracy for Hong Kong, capping a week-long campaign that has seen classroom strikes and a large cut-out depicting the city's leader as the devil paraded in public.

Earlier on Friday, hundreds of school children, some barely in their teens and dressed in school uniforms, assembled in a park close to government headquarters sporting yellow ribbons and stickers saying "smash Chinese Communist Party dictatorship".

"We have to act right now and not sit back. Too many people in Hong Kong are left cold by politics, but that's not right. These politics will deeply affect our future prospects," said 17-year-old Louis Yeung.

About 200 students camped outside the home of chief executive Leung Chun-ying on Thursday night after he ignored their 48-hour ultimatum to meet them to discuss the special administrative region's democratic future as tensions escalate.

After work on Friday evening, thousands more people rallied to the side of the 1,500 or so secondary pupils who had skipped classes, bringing the week-long class boycott to a close.