Red shirt rally turns chaotic

KUALA LUMPUR: Police were forced to unleash water cannons on Red shirt rally participants in Petaling Street, when the 1,000 strong crowd persisted with their attempts to break through the barricades and enter the popular tourist enclave.
After an hour long discussion between the police and rally organisers, police stood firm in their decision of not letting the crowd pass through.
This was not well received by the participants, who started throwing water bottles, cones and rocks at the police.
A couple of explosions were also heard, believed to be from firecrackers, lit a few metres away from the entrance which was barricaded by Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel.
At this juncture, two protesters were pulled aside by the police, while another rally goer was injured by a stray rock which hit his head.
The authorities then retaliated by moving in the FRU trucks and fired water cannons to disperse the crowd.
Undeterred, the crowd started to regroup again at the entrance of Petaling Street.
Shouts of "Hidup Melayu" (long live the malays) and "Hancur DAP" (crush DAP) pierced the highly charged atmosphere.
Police stepped up their defence with more reinforcements to secure the area.
Meanwhile, there were several instances where participants formed their own factions and went against each other, including in Petaling Street.
Before the whole commotion with the authorities started in Petaling Street, two factions had an argument among each other on the order by police to disperse.
Police had to intervene to cool down the situation between both factions.
Earlier, a similar situation occurred in Bukit Bintang, as the crowd argued over the route they were supposed to take to Padang Merbok.
Police also had a hard time trying to form a human barricade to block off participants from entering Low Yat Plaza.
The commotion there ended with the arrest of a participant.