National security police on Thursday said they had arrested 10 people suspected of inciting a riot and “conspiracy to collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security”.

The six women and four men, aged 26 to 43, are suspected of working with the now-defunct 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund to "receive donations from various overseas organisations to support people who have fled overseas or organisations which called for sanctions against Hong Kong," police said.

The fund was set up to raise money to help pay the medical and legal bills of people involved in the protests of 2019 and 2020.

Officers said they seized electronic communication devices and "related documents" during raids on the suspects' homes and offices.

The force added that its operation was ongoing and further arrests could be made.

Last year, police arrested five former trustees of the fund – Cardinal Joseph Zen, ex-lawmakers Margaret Ng and Cyd Ho, Cantopop singer Denise Ho and cultural studies scholar Hui Po-keung – on suspicion of conspiring to collude with foreign forces.

The five were never charged with the offence, but were later found guilty of failing to register the fund as a society and were each fined HK$4,000.