Demonstrators opposed to the demolition of the old Star Ferry pier in Central scuffled with police yesterday when they tried to remove them from the site, where they had been picketing from Tuesday night.

They finally left the site around 7 pm yesterday but vowed to hold a candle-light vigil last night. Many demonstrators, including students, social and restaurant workers, joined the protest from outside the fenced-off area.

One of them was arrested for "criminal damage" to property.

Scores of police officers rushed to the spot around 2 pm. And an hour later, they joined their colleagues to remove the 11 men and two women from the site where they, along with some legislators, were waiting for a reply from Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen.

Suen was asked if the demolition could be halted for two days, pending a meeting with experts and a discussion in the Legislative Council on the matter.

The demonstrators were unhappy with police action, and some of them kept banging the iron plates used to cordoned off the pier site.

They ignored the heavy rain and shouted slogans, accusing the policemen of using "excessive violence", and demanded the immediate release of fellow protester Ho Loy.

An elderly woman who had joined the demonstration had to be rushed to hospital after feeling dizzy following the scuffle.

Another scuffle erupted when a police car carrying Ho was leaving the site for the Waterfront Police Station.

Police tried to remove the protesters who had formed a human chain on the road, sitting with their hands locked. Some of them lay down on the road to make it even more difficult for police to remove them.

The last two protesters, standing on top of a bulldozer, were removed around 5:30 pm. One of them, 30-year-old social worker Mak Fung, said they had no other option but to demonstrate to make their voice heard.

"We can only use our hands to stop the machines from working," he said.

Another protester, 27-year-old community worker Fred Lam, was injured in the hand. "Six to seven police officers together tried to remove me, some of them even kicked me," he alleged.

Yip Po-lam, a 27-year-old post-graduate cultural studies student, too accused police of using "excessive violence" and said they had pulled her by the neck.

The protesters assembled at the pier site on Edinburgh Road on Tuesday evening, after which a minor scuffle ensued with police in which a photographer was injured.

Twenty-year-old design student of Polytechnic University Adonian Chan didn't sleep the whole night.

It was very uncomfortable "in there", he said, and police even followed them when they went to the toilet.

But Chan said the cause was worth the trouble. "At least, some community members supported our action and gave us food."

Protester Yuen Chi-yan managed to catch some sleep but his "bed" was under a bulldozer that he chose to escape the rain.

"We didn't have umbrellas and raincoats, and the policemen refused to let us use their shelters. So we had to sleep under the bulldozer, even though my trousers were soaked in rain."

An 83-year-old woman, surnamed So, had gone to the spot to give the protesters some food. But police told her she could not enter the site. She could, however, toss the food packets over the fence, which she did.

"I'm saddened by the demolition plan. The pier has been here for several decades. It seems that I'm losing something," she said.

The mother of protester Li Sook-kit, too, supported the protest despite fearing for her son's safety.

"It's good that youngsters today care about the community. It's encouraging," she said.