Eerie Quiet Settles on Hong Kong as Face Mask Ban Takes Effect

HONG KONG — Hong Kong residents were recovering on Saturday from street clashes, arson and vandalism that threw the city into chaos a night earlier, and bracing for the prospect of further unrest as a contentious ban on face masks took effect.

As many Hong Kongers awoke on Saturday morning to find the windows of their neighborhood stores and subway stations smashed by pro-democracy protesters, much of the city — including its entire subway system — was shuttered.

And as tourists anxiously raced to Hong Kong’s airport on Saturday afternoon, the streets of the normally bustling financial hub were cloaked in eerie silence, along with concern about how much further the clashes might escalate.

The semiautonomous Chinese city has been in a political crisis since June, and street clashes between antigovernment protesters and the police have steadily grown more combative and dangerous.

In the latest sign of rising danger, a 14-year-old boy was hit in the leg by a gunshot on Friday. His condition was later changed from serious to stable.

The police said separately that one of its plainclothes officers had fired a shot in self-defense on Friday. But as of Saturday afternoon, it was unclear whether the officer had in fact shot the boy, as many protesters assumed.

Now the face mask ban, which took effect at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, threatens to inflame tensions further still.

Hong Kong’s embattled leader, Carrie Lam, announced the ban on Friday, saying her government had a duty to “stop the escalating violence and restore calmness in society.”

Mrs. Lam’s government apparently hopes that invoking its emergency powers to enact the ban — which is punishable by fines and jail time — will dampen turnout at pro-democracy street demonstrations where protesters typically wear masks to hide their identities and guard against tear gas.

But Mrs. Lam’s announcement on Friday set off an especially violent wave of protests across the city, as protesters smashed windows and set fires at subway stations and at stores they perceived to be pro-government.

Friday’s violence and chaos prompted the authorities to shut down the entire subway system two hours earlier than normal. That the system was still closed as of early Saturday afternoon marked an exceedingly rare development in a global financial hub known for its efficient public transportation.

Many businesses were also closed across the city on Saturday, including several major malls and all but one branch of Bank of China. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority said that some bank branches had closed on account of vandalism and arson, and the police warned the public in a text message that “unauthorized public events expected in coming days may cause severe disruptions.”

Some protesters were planning to defy the new ban by gathering with masks in the streets over the weekend, although their exact plans were unclear as of early Saturday afternoon.

“The ban is not addressing the problem; it’s trying to get rid of the people who are trying to speak out about it,” said Castor Lau, 29, a protester who joined a protest on Friday in the Causeway Bay shopping district. “But Hong Kongers won’t be deterred from protests. We can’t let oppression govern our behavior.”

On Friday, Mrs. Lam said she was acting under a rarely used provision in the territory’s colonial-era law that allows the issuance of regulations in response to “a state of serious danger.” She emphasized repeatedly at a news conference that she was not declaring an emergency.