Hong Kong police arrested 86 people over the past 24 hours during an operation to clear a key protest site in Mongkok, as the territory steps up efforts to wind down the pro-democracy movement that has paralysed parts of the city for two months.

Police arrested 23 people on Tuesday afternoon during a tense stand-off between protesters and bailiffs who were trying to enforce a court order to clear a block in Mongkok, a bustling shopping area in Kowloon. The police later arrested another 63 people as protesters clashed with officers in a neighbouring part of the district.

Protesters have been holding sit-in demonstrations for two months to oppose a Chinese plan for electoral reform in the territory. The student-led protests have blocked traffic arteries in Admiralty, a central business district on Hong Kong Island, and in Mongkok, a popular shopping destination for mainland Chinese tourists.