On the Tuesday night, the airport protesters turned on two mainland Chinese men in the crowd, who, they alleged, were government agents. One of the men was carrying a mainland security-service ID card bearing a name that protesters said matched a name appearing on a database of Shenzhen police officers. They beat him senseless and dragged him, disoriented, around the stifling hot crowds in the departure hall for hours before first-aiders were able to extract him from the crowd.

The second man said he was a member of the media; but after arousing the suspicions of the crowd, he was searched and found to be carrying in his bag a blue T-shirt with an ‘I Love HK Police’ logo, an identical T-shirt to that worn by pro-Beijing thugs who had threatened protesters.