Hong Kong's police chief rejected calls on Thursday for the force to apologise for their alleged violence during the ongoing social unrest, declaring that it is the "rioters" who need to say sorry for the harm they have caused the city.

Even as he refused to back down, Commissioner of Police Chris Tang Ping-keung conceded the force could have handled the social unrest better during a two-hour grilling by predominantly pro-democracy Central and Western District Council members at a meeting to discuss the force's conduct over the past months since the anti-government protests began last June.