HONG KONG authorities cleared away the last barricades and tents of a two-month protest movement today, achieving their goal without resorting to violence, arresting 209 people.

Hundreds of police officers carried out a methodical operation to shut down the protest site that sprawled across a normally busy road in the Admiralty area on the edge of the city’s financial district.

The student-led demonstrators have been protesting against the special autonomous region’s insistence on carrying out the first election for Hong Kong’s leader in line with laid-down procedures.

However, the movement’s momentum has been fading in recent weeks.

Hundreds of remaining protesters heeded police warnings to leave the protest zone but dozens of students and local anti-Beijing politicians remained sitting on the street this afternoon.

They chanted “I want true democracy” and “we will be back” but offered no resistance as they were taken away one by one.

Among those police took away were media mogul Jimmy Lai, Cantonese pop singer Denise Ho, veteran politician Martin Lee and legislators including Albert Ho.

Workers enforcing a court order had removed barricades earlier before officers moved in to dismantle tents and obstructions from the rest of the site.

Police warned protesters that they faced arrest if they did not leave.

“I think the spirit of the movement still lives, but the idea of occupying streets is over,” said student Andrew Chan as he left the site.

“We can’t even get a big crowd to come out today to fight the police clearing the site.”

Tents and canopies that had housed water and other supplies lay in heaps among discarded newspapers, flip-flops, cardboard boxes and umbrellas.

Student leader Alex Chow, who had sought to rally supporters as the police approached, said that their fight was not over and they would find other ways to press forward in the days to come.

“People will come back again. They will come back with stronger force,” he said.