Hong Kong police fired tear gas in running battles with hundreds of protesters, some of whom stormed the legislature, destroyed pictures and daubed walls with graffiti, on the anniversary of the city’s 1997 return to Chinese rule on Monday.
Police arrived by bus and moved into position as about a thousand protesters, furious at a proposed law allowing extraditions to China, gathered around the Legislative Council building in the heart of the former British colony’s financial district.
Police fired several rounds of tear gas as protesters held up umbrellas to protect themselves or fled. Plumes of smoke billowed across major thoroughfares and in between some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers.
Protesters had carried road signs, others corrugated iron sheets and pieces of scaffolding, as they barged into the council building. Some sat at legislators’ desks, checking their phones, while others scrawled “anti-extradition” on chamber walls.
Other graffiti called for Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to step down, while pictures of some lawmakers were defaced.
The government called for an immediate end to the violence, saying it had stopped work on amendments to the suspended extradition bill and that the legislation would automatically lapse in July next year.
A small group of mostly students wearing hard hats and masks had used a metal trolley, poles and scaffolding to charge again and again at the compound’s reinforced glass doors, which eventually gave.
The Legislative Council Secretariat released a statement cancelling business for Tuesday. The central government offices said they would close on Tuesday “owing to security consideration”, while all guided tours to the Legislative Council complex were suspended until further notice.
Riot police in helmets and carrying batons earlier fired pepper spray as the standoff continued into the sweltering heat of the evening. Some demonstrators removed steel bars that were reinforcing parts of the council building.
Banners hanging over flyovers at the protest site read: “Free Hong Kong.”
The protesters, some with cling film wrapped around their arms to protect them from tear gas, once again paralysed parts of the Asian financial hub as they occupied roads after blocking them off with metal barriers.
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Source: eNCA
