HONG KONG: Hong Kong police fired water cannon and volleys of tear gas to disperse protesters throwing petrol bombs at government buildings on Sunday (Sep 15), as months of sometimes violent demonstrations showed no sign of letting up.
Some protesters threw bricks at police outside the nearby People's Liberation Army base in the city and tore down and set fire to a red banner proclaiming the 70th anniversary on Oct 1 of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
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One water cannon caught fire after being hit by a petrol bomb. The water cannon fired blue jets of water, used elsewhere in the world to help identify protesters later.
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"Radical protesters are currently occupying Harcourt Road in Admiralty, vandalising Central Government Offices and repeatedly throwing petrol bombs inside," police said in a statement.
Thousands of protesters, many clad in black masks, caps and shades to obscure their identity, raced through the streets of the financial hub in cat-and-mouse tactics with police, setting street fires and blocking roads in the heart of the city.
Authorities moved quickly to douse the fires and police fired volleys of tear gas to disperse protesters, including in the bustling shopping and tourist district of Causeway Bay.
Violence erupted in the district of Fortress Hill on the east of the island as men in white T-shirts, some wielding rods, clashed with anti-government activists.
MTR STATIONS VANDALISED
A heavy police presence could be seen in and around subway stations. Rail operator MTR Corp has become a prime target of vandalism, with activists angry that it closes stations during protests and prevents demonstrators from gathering.
At Admiralty Station, protesters used road barriers to block the entrance and some were seen vandalising security cameras, pathways and spraypainting over the name of the station.
Violence erupted in the district of Fortress Hill on the east of the island as men in white T-shirts, some wielding rods, clashed with anti-government activists.
Police had turned down a request by the Civil Human Rights Front to hold a march on Sunday, but the demonstrators were undeterred.
Footage from Wan Chai showed thousands of people, many of them holding up umbrellas, marching and chanting slogans in support of Hong Kong's freedom movement.
Protesters light a fire outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong on Sep 15, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Anthony Wallace)
About less than an hour later, firefighters had to extinguish a number of smaller fires at the entrance to the Wan Chai MTR station.
Parts of the station had also been vandalised and video showed broken glass from destroyed windows shattered on the ground.
A heavy police presence could be seen in and around subway stations. Rail operator MTR Corp has become a prime target of vandalism, with activists angry that it closes stations during protests and prevents demonstrators from gathering.
Protesters react after police fired tear gas outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong on Sep 15, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Nicolas Asfouri)
Shops in key protest areas once again shuttered early as more than three months of demonstrations continued to take a toll on business.
The Airport Authority said on Sunday that passenger numbers fell 12.4 per cent year-on-year in August to six million. Protesters last month jammed the airport arrivals hall, leading to cancelled or delayed flights as they sought to draw world attention to their fight for democracy.
But while chaotic scenes of protesters clashing with police have been beamed live to the world – at times under gleaming skyscrapers in the heart of the financial centre – life for many in the Chinese-ruled territory proceeds relatively normally.
BRITISH CONSULATE RALLY
While the turnout on Sunday was smaller than previous weekends, the unrest underscores the defiance of many activists.
Demonstrators are angry about what they see as creeping interference by Beijing in their city's affairs despite a promise of autonomy.
A protester reacts after police fired tear gas outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong on Sep 15, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Nicolas Asfouri)
The spark for the protests was planned legislation, now withdrawn, that would have allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial.
The protests have since broadened into calls for universal suffrage.
Earlier protesters gathered peacefully outside the British Consulate, calling on Britain to rein in China.
The Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed in 1984, lays out Hong Kong's future after its return to China in 1997, a "one country, two systems" formula that ensures freedoms not enjoyed on the mainl
