At least 40 people were detained for participating in an illegal assembly, destroying property and obstruction of justice inside the Prince Edward metro station in Hong Kong, according to police on Sunday.

Video footage showed members of the police’s Special Tactical Squad, known as “raptors”, charging into a stationary train at Prince Edward station on Saturday night, the South China Morning Post reported.

One clip showed officers from the squad hitting two men and two women in masks who were crying and cowering on the ground, while one officer pepper-sprayed them.

As the officers left the cabin, other passengers, some of them masked, could be seen with their umbrellas up.

Other footage showed several commuters bleeding from head wounds, and officers tying up suspects who had been wrestled to the ground.

Police said they entered the station as there were protesters destroying ticketing machines and the control room window, and said they had received emergency calls about a dispute in the station. The Mong Kok MTR station was also vandalised.

“We disagree with the allegations police officers had entered the MTR stations to beat people up,” a police spokeswoman said.

On Friday, three Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, including Joshua Wong who was one of the main leaders of the Umbrella Revolution in 2014, have been arrested ahead of a proposed mass protest that has been banned by the police.

Saturday’s incident was just one of many shocking turns during the 13th straight weekend of ­protests in the city against the now-shelved extradition bill.

Anti-government protesters are planning on Sunday afternoon to disrupt all travel routes to Hong Kong airport.

Protesters are calling on the public to overwhelm road and rail links to the airport on Sunday and Monday to cause flights to be cancelled.

Earlier in the month, tens of thousands of people gathered on top of Hong Kong’s Lion Rock to shine lights across the city in solidarity with the city which has been shaken by anti-government protests for almost three months.

Hong Kong’s Civil Human Rights Front had decided to cancel the march it convened over the weekend after failing to get permission from the police to conduct it.

The city had appeared to have pulled back from a nosedive into violence, with the last serious clashes taking place a week and a half ago just after the city’s airport was paralysed by demonstrators.

The demonstrations were triggered by a controversial bill which would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, but have evolved into a call for wider democratic reforms and a halt to sliding freedoms.K