Pregnant woman pepper sprayed, slammed to the ground by Hong Kong police

A pregnant woman has been pepper sprayed repeatedly in the face and wrestled to the ground by several heavily armed police in Hong Kong.

The woman was filmed by Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong seemingly in a tense stand-off with police before one stepped forward and sprayed the toxic liquid from close range.

She appeared to cover her face before confronting the officers again, this time appearing to flick a substance back in their direction.

But the act was received with more violence, and another officer rushed towards her while pulsing his pepper spray at her eyes.

He then dragged her towards his co-workers as others surrounded the woman and proceeded to wrestle her to the ground.

At one point there were about six men surrounding the woman as she was pressed to the tiled floor.

Mr Wong was then pushed backwards away from the scene as he was filming and was threatened with pepper spray himself.

The incident came a day after a protester was shot and a man set on fire in some of the worst violence to rock the Chinese-ruled city in more than five months of anti-government demonstrations.

Some railway services were suspended and roads closed across the Asian financial hub for a second day on Tuesday (local time), with long traffic jams building in the morning rush hour.

Riot police were deployed at metro stations across the territory and large queues were forming at railway platforms as commuters struggled to get to work.

Rail operator MTR Corp urged people to use other forms of transport.

“It is very inconvenient for me because I have a few meetings to go to in Central,” said a 38-year-old named only as Rodney who works as a legal consultant for an international firm.

“Hopefully my partners will understand that my city is going through a tough period,” he said, adding that he blames Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam for the protests.

There were chaotic scenes as passengers streamed out of at least one train that was forced to stop when barricades blocked the rail line.

With AAP

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