HONG KONG, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Rioters took down the Chinese national flag from a pole and attacked police officers in an assembly held on Sunday afternoon at the Edinburgh Place in Hong Kong.

Footage showed several police officers arriving to retrieve the flag abandoned on the ground were besieged and assaulted by a large group of rioters at about 5:00 p.m. local time.

When police officers arrested people committing violent acts, rioters hurled miscellaneous objects at and assaulted them with intent to help the arrested people escape, the police said in a statement.

"In face of the serious threat to the safety of everyone at the scene and public order, police officers are deploying minimum necessary force to disperse the protesters," the statement said, adding that a person was arrested.

Given the chaos, the organizer had to announce the end of the event, but some rioters in black lingered and blocked roads with debris.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government strongly condemned such violent acts and stressed that the national flag is the symbol and sign of the country.

A person who desecrates the national flag or national emblem by publicly and wilfully burning, mutilating, scrawling on, defiling or trampling on it commits an offense and is liable on conviction to a fine of 50,000 Hong Kong dollars (6,400 U.S. dollars) and to imprisonment for three years.