Police fired chemical-laced blue water and tear gas at protesters who lobbed Molotov cocktails outside the Hong Kong government office complex today. Violence flared anew after thousands of pro-democracy supporters marched through downtown shopping district in defiance of a police ban - the latest expression of a popular revolt that has raged for the last 99 days. Shops were shut amid fears of renewed violence in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory that has been unsettled by months of protests. A mixed crowd of hardcore protesters in black and wearing masks, along with families with children, spilled into the roads of the Causeway Bay shopping belt. Some waved U.S. and British flags, while others carried posters reiterating their calls for democratic reforms. Police had turned down a request by the Civil Human Rights Front to hold the march but the demonstrators were undeterred, as they have been all summer. The march disrupted traffic and many shops, including the Sogo department store, closed their doors.