Thousands of protesters gathered onto the street, blocking roads to attend an anti-government march banned by police out of public safety concerns in Hong Kong on Sunday.

A petrol bomb was thrown into an exit of Yau Ma Tei MTR station, while branches of Best Mart 360 and Yoshinoya have been targets of vandalism. One protester used an electric chainsaw to cut down a CCTV camera, before setting it on fire, the South China Morning Post reported.

The march, originally organised by the Civil Human Rights Front, set off from Salisbury Garden in the shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui to the West Kowloon terminus of the high-speed rail link.

The front’s vice-convenor Figo Chan Ho-wun, alongside three pan-democrats, on Saturday, pledged to push ahead with the unauthorised procession as a form of civil disobedience.

Kowloon Mosque and Islamic Centre as well as Chungking Mansions – home to a lot of South Asian restaurants and popular with African mobile-phone dealers – are on high alert after a bloody assault on the front’s convenor Jimmy Sham Tsz-kit on Wednesday night.

On the eve of the unauthorised march, Sham appealed to Hongkongers to protect each other and not to label anyone with their ethnicity.

Earlier on Friday, thousands of residents took to the street and blocked roads across Hong Kong during lunchtime protests after the police blocked the city’s largest pro-democracy group from marching against the governments mask ban.

Hong Kong police rejected an application for the march by the Civil Human Rights Front.

Police cited violent incidents stemming from earlier protests in its letter of objection.

On Monday, Hong Kong activists planned a rally after another weekend of unrest that saw protesters hurl petrol bombs and police fired tear gas and rubber bullets, as violence in the Chinese-ruled city shows no signs of letting up.

Earlier this month, Hong Kong’s entire mass transit rail system was suspended after a night of violence sparked by a ban on pro-democracy protesters wearing face masks, as the government imposed emergency powers not used in more than half a century.

The ban was imposed under emergency powers not used in more than half a century that aimed at quelling nearly four months of unrest but instead triggered mass protests and vows of defiance, with a 14-year-old boy reportedly shot and wounded.

Lam had introduced a ban on people wearing masks at public rallies, colonial-era emergency legislation that has not been used in more than half a century.

The controversial China extradition bill was withdrawn in early September but the movement has morphed into a wider campaign for greater democracy and against alleged police brutality.