A Hong Kong street artist was charged on Friday with assaulting a police officer and criminal damage, the first prosecution against an anti-government protester since the city was rocked by unprecedented demonstrations.

Sparked by a law that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, the city has witnessed three huge peaceful rallies as well as civil disobedience and violence from a hard core of younger protesters who have besieged the police headquarters and on Monday stormed the city's parliament.

Authorities have vowed to hunt those behind the unrest that has plunged the semi-autonomous city's Beijing-backed government into crisis.

Pun Ho-chiu, 31, appeared in court on Friday over his alleged involvement in the blockade of the city's police headquarters on 21 June.

He was also charged with disorderly behaviour for throwing eggs at police outside the headquarters during the six-hour siege.

A well-known activist nicknamed "Painter" for his street art, Pun was remanded in custody and faces up to ten years in jail if convicted.

He was one of the only protesters during the police siege to show himself unmasked.

In court his lawyer said he was assaulted by police who spoke to him in Mandarin -- the predominant language on the Chinese mainland.

The judge said the court could not investigate the claims and directed him to the police complaints procedure.

Forensic investigators have been combing through the trashed parliament for fingerprint and DNA evidence to help identify protesters who stormed the building and left its walls daubed with slogans such as "HK is not China" and a colonial-era flag pinned to the legislature's podium.

An AFP tally shows at least 66 arrests have been announced by police since the protests began. But it is not clear how many of those people have been charged and police did not respond to requests for a breakdown.

- 'Mothers rally' -

The unrest presents the most severe challenge to Beijing and Hong Kong's leaders since the city's handover to China.

Critics say Beijing has ratcheted up control over the city in recent years, stamping down on dissidents and refusing calls for universal suffrage.

While the current protests were sparked by huge public opposition to the extradition bill they have since morphed into a broad anti-government movement.

On Friday evening thousands of Hong Kong mothers rallied at a park in the commercial district of Central in support of those who ransacked parliament.

Didi Cheng, who has a 25-year-old daughter, told AFP the protesters who stormed the building "had no other choice".

"After two mass rallies, the cold-blooded government had no response," the 53-year-old said.

"I have to come out to show my support for the youngsters, to tell them I stand with them."

City leader Carrie Lam has postponed the extradition legislation but has failed to quell public anger.

Protesters have demanded she withdraw the bill entirely, launch an independent inquiry into police use of tear gas and rubber bullets, and step down.

Chief secretary Matthew Chueng -- Lam's de facto deputy -- held talks with pro-democracy lawmakers which he said were "constructive" but there was no suggestion of a breakthrough.

"My meeting with the pan-democrats just now was very useful in the sense that it's the first time we've really had an opportunity to sit down and talk candidly and frankly over the issues," he told reporters.

Since the parliament siege Beijing has vocally thrown its support behind Lam, calling on Hong Kong authorities to pursue all those involved in the ransacking.

Multiple university student groups have rejected a request by Lam's administration for closed-door talks, saying they would only meet if the government granted an amnesty to those arrested and held the dialogue in public.

Activists have also circulated plans for a new protest on Sunday via the encrypted app Telegram which will take place in Kowloon -- an area of the city popular with mainland Chinese tourists who are subject to heavily censored news across the border.

Hand signals and shields: how Hong Kong's parliament was stormed
Hong Kong (AFP) July 3, 2019 - With makeshift shields zip-tied to their wrists, a trolley converted into a battering ram and rehearsed hand signals, Hong Kong's protesters showed remarkable levels of do-it-yourself savvy as they besieged the city's parliament.

Throughout the last three weeks of unprecedented anti-government demonstrations, the largely young students at the frontlines of the protests have displayed a flair for innovation in their battle with the authorities.

But Monday's storming and vandalising of the legislature was their most brazen operation to date -- an hours-long siege and eventual breach of a heavily fortified building using whatever tools came to hand.

The protests have been leaderless -- unlike previous mass demonstrations where key figures have been jailed in recent years for leading or encouraging civil disobedience.

Many of the current generation of largely young protesters proudly repeat the phrase "be like water", a philosophy of adaptability and unpredictability espoused by martial arts master and local legend Bruce Lee.

- Hand signals -

In an inventive move that proved key in supporting those on the front lines, protesters created a string of hand signals to communicate equipment requests

A guide to the signals was shared among social media -- a triangle an appeal for more helmets. Other gestures alert the crowds for cling film, umbrellas, scissors, even asthma medication.

The equipment is then ferried to the front by long, snaking lines of protesters.

On Wednesday police announced that a 35-year-old man surnamed Lau had been arrested during the early hours of Monday morning after they found supplies in his van.

"Officers seized a batch of scissors, cutters, hexagon keys, helmets, masks, gloves and industrial grade baking soda from a parked van," the police said.

- 'We have to support each other' -

The South China Morning Post reported that the decision to storm the parliament was taken after some 200 hardcore protesters put various options to a vote earlier on Monday, as the city was marking the anniversary of its handover to China.

Tosi Kwan, a 29-year-old teacher, was among those helping to ferry equipment to the front before the parliament was breached.

"I'm not too sure about the ultimate goal tonight," he told AFP. "Maybe those on the front lines have discussed this, I don't know. But as resistors, we have to support each other, and those on the front lines."

While Kwan was not taking part in the break-in, he said he understood those who were because years of peaceful protests had failed to achieve political reform.

"Such resistance is necessary. It's been clear: two million people marching was useless," he said, referencing a record-breaking rally on 16 June.

The first successful breach of the building's heavily reinforced windows came after protesters filled a street vendor's trolley with heavy debris and then used it as a battering ram.

It looked like something out of a medieval siege. Inside the building stood rows and rows of riot police with shields, pepper spray and gas masks.

On the other side protesters slammed the trolley against the glass for some two hours as others protected them from police pepper spray with a shield wall of umbrellas.

Some of the protesters had strapped makeshift armour to their bodies, comprised of thick magazines or cork padding.

One of the most persistent assailants wielded an eye-catching orange shield that was made out of one half of a plastic suitcase. Others assembled long paint rollers to cover CCTV cameras on the ceiling.

- 'Don't destroy' -

But it was steel poles, taken from nearby construction sites and unscrewed from street fencing, that proved the most reliable at defeating the toughened glass.

As the sun set, protesters discovered they could make much better progress against the glass by attacking its edges, creating a hole that could quickly be widened.

The riot police then retreated behind steel shutters that placed the building on complete lockdown. But they were little match for the protesters who again used the polls to prise the shutters up high enough to place metal barricades underneath and allow people to flood through.

At that point police abandoned the parliament to the protesters who swarmed the building, spraying the walls with graffiti, tearing down portraits of city leaders and hanging a colonial-era flag in the debating chamber.

But even the storming showed careful levels of coordination with notes left by protesters telling their fellow assailants to leave books and display cabinets with expensive trinkets unharmed.

"Preserve cultural objects", "Don't destroy", read two notes next to a display cabinet.

Another sign was stuck to a fridge containing drinks.

"We are not thieves," it read. "We won't take without asking."

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Carrie Lam: Hong Kong's divisive leader; China demands criminal probe
Hong Kong (AFP) July 2, 2019
Carrie Lam vowed to heal divisions when she became Hong Kong's leader, but her tenure has thrust the financial hub into unprecedented turmoil, sparking huge protests that saw parliament ransacked and leaving the city more divided than ever. The 62-year-old devout Catholic took over in March 2017, but was not popularly elected. Hong Kong's leaders are instead chosen by a 1,200 strong committee stacked with Beijing loyalists, and Lam secured 777 votes - becoming the first woman elevated to the c ... read more