The anti-government protests officially entered their seventh month on Monday.

Police said they've arrested more than 6,000 people in the most serious anti-government protests since the handover in 1997.

Police said that 40 percent of those arrested are students, with the youngest aged 11.

They gave the figures in their regular briefing.

Some 2,600 people have sought treatment at public hospital emergency wards over the past half year.

And over the past six months, police have fired 16,000 rounds of tear gas, 10,000 rubber bullets, and around 2,000 rounds of bean bags and 2,000 rounds of sponge bullets.

Hong Kong has been battered by increasingly violent demonstrations in the biggest challenge the SAR has presented to Beijing since the 1997 handover.

Millions of people have taken to the streets in protests fuelled by years of growing fears that the central government is encroaching on the city's liberties.

The movement's demands include an independent inquiry into the police's handling of the protests, an amnesty for those arrested, and democratic elections.

However, over the past two weeks there's been a dramatic fall in clashes and vandalism since pro-democracy candidates scored a landslide victory in District Council elections last month.