Hundreds of Hong Kong protesters yesterday stormed the legislature on the anniversary of the territory’s 1997 return to China, destroying pictures and daubing walls with graffiti as anger over an extradition bill spiraled out of control.
Some carried road signs, others corrugated iron sheets and pieces of scaffolding upstairs and downstairs as about 1,000 people gathered around the Legislative Council building.
Some sat at legislators’ desks, checking their cellphones, while others scrawled “Withdraw anti-extradition” on walls.
Photo: Reuters
The government issued a statement late last night slamming the protesters who had entered the council building.
“Radical protesters stormed the Legislative Council Complex with extreme violence,” the statement read. “These protesters seriously jeopardized the safety of police officers and members of the public. Such violent acts are unacceptable to society.”
Police had earlier given an ultimatum to the protesters, warning that they would soon move to clear the building and would use “appropriate force.”
Photo: Reuters
“In a short time police will go to the LegCo area to clear it. If met with obstruction or resistance, police will use appropriate force,” a police spokesman said in a video posted on the force’s Facebook page.
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 today. The central government offices said they would also close today “owing to security consideration.”
Photo: AFP
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 their skin in the event of tear gas, once again paralyzed parts of Hong Kong Island as they occupied roads after blocking them off with
Photo: Reuters
metal barriers.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) suspended the bill on June 15 after some of the largest and most violent protests in the city in decades, but stopped short of protesters’ demands to scrap it.
Tens of thousands marched in temperatures of about 33>C from Victoria Park in an annual rally.
Photo: Bloomberg
Many clapped as protesters held up a poster of Lam inside a bamboo cage.
Organizers said 550,000 turned out. Police said there were 190,000 at their peak.
In a speech after a flag-raising ceremony early yesterday marking the anniversary of the handover, Lam said the protests and two marches that attracted hundreds of thousands of participants have taught her that she needs to listen better to youth and people in general.
Photo: AFP
“This has made me fully realize that I, as a politician, have to remind myself all the time of the need to grasp public sentiments accurately,” she told the gathering in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
She insisted her government has good intentions, but said “I will learn the lesson and ensure that the government’s future work will be closer and more responsive to the aspirations, sentiments and opinions of the community.”
Security guards pushed pro-democracy lawmaker Helena Wong (黃碧雲) out of the hall as she shouted at Lam to resign and withdraw the “evil” legislation.
Photo: EPA-EFE
She later told reporters she was voicing the grievances and opinions of the protesters, who could not get into the event.
Jimmy Sham (岑子傑), a leader of the Civil Human Rights Front that organized the march, told the crowd that Lam had not responded to their demands because she is not democratically elected.
“We know that Carrie Lam can be so arrogant,” Sham said, rallying the crowd under a blazing sun before the start of the march at Victoria Park. “She is protected by our flawed system.”
Additional reporting by AP and AFP
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