Hong Kong police arrest two student leaders

By early Wednesday morning local time, police in Hong Kong had detained some 116 demonstrators for unlawful assembly, obstructing police officers and obstructing a court order to clear protest sites.

Joshua Wong of the Scholarism group and the deputy secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, Lester Shum, were among those arrested, according to the groups' Facebook pages.

News of the student leaders' arrests coincided with a clearing of the Mong Kok site, where pro-democracy demonstrators have been blocking a main artery of traffic since late September.

"They've taken away the brain so there can be no counter moves," Hong Kong Polytechnic University student Dean Shing told news agency DPA in reaction to Wong and Shum's arrests.

Police tore down tents and removed barricades from Mong Kok, reportedly engaging in altercations late on Tuesday with protesters who refused to leave.

According to local media, as quoted by the Associated Press news agency, the city deployed roughly 4,000 police officers to enforce the court injunction to clear obstructions for drivers on Nathan Road. The busy artery in the Kowloon peninsula lies across the harbor from the financial district, which has been the main occupied area. A week ago, police peacefully removed barricades at a similar camp in the Admiralty district.

Traffic was flowing normally by Wednesday morning along Nathan Road for the first time in roughly two months.

Pro-democracy group Occupy Central and student groups have been carrying out mass protests since late September. They are demanding the resignation of Hong Kong city leader Leung Chun-ying and free leadership elections to be held in the city in 2017. China's National People's Congress decided in August that any candidates would have to be vetted by Beijing before appearing on the ballot.

kms/jm (AP, Reuters, dpa)