Earlier Thursday, bailiffs backed by police to enforce a court injunction met no resistance as they removed barricades in one part of the protest area. The injunction was brought by a bus company that complained of disruption to its business operations.
After telling protesters to leave or face arrest, police moved against the main Admiralty site and set up a cordon around the area, a key financial district close to government headquarters. Several roads there have been closed to traffic for two and a half months, with cars replaced by thousands of protesters, hundreds of tents and dozens of barricades.