Demonstrations in Hong Kong turned violent Tuesday as police used pepper spray to dispel protesters in the Mong Kok neighborhood, the McClatchy Company reported.

According to the newspaper, authorities' harsh methods caused hundreds more protestors to "rally to the demonstrators' cause and take to the streets."

"Police and pro-democracy protesters clashed repeatedly into the night, with many of the confrontations broadcast live in Hong Kong on the 58th day of the city's unprecedented protests," McClatchy reported.

The attempt to clear the pro-democracy protest camp "spiraled into chaos," according to The Associated Press.

Police said more than 80 individuals were arrested.

"Twenty-three were detained for contempt of court or resisting public officers after police warned them not to interfere with workers and bailiffs enforcing a court order to remove obstructions from part of the protest area, one of three sites in the city occupied by activists," the AP reported.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that riot and tactical units of the police used "direct force," as well as batons and pepper spray to calm crowds. Those suspected to be leading the chaos were reportedly "wrestled to the ground, zip-tied and bundled into waiting vans."

"They want to arrest key people on the frontline to sap the resistance of the movement, but they will fail," Vincent Man, a 26-year-old activist, said.

However, well-known activist and lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, known as "Long Hair," was among those arrested, his office told CNN.

The protests began in September when activists first denounced a proposed electoral reform imposed by China's National People's Congress. Demonstrators gathered outside the Hong Kong government headquarters and occupied several major intersections. They have voiced concerns that the reform imposes undue limits on who can be chosen as the city's chief executive.

A former British colony, Hong Kong was returned to the People's Republic of China in 1997. Today, it has the status of a "special administrative region" within the Communist nation and is governed under the principle of "one country, two systems."

Authorities, which initially proved overwhelmed by the protests, have since reacted with increasing force. Many demonstrators, though, have resisted.

"I am ready to be arrested," James Cheng, 22, who has been camping on a Mong Kok street for the last month, told McClatchy. "Everyone who comes out here accepts that. If you don't, you shouldn't be here."