Groups of people protesting over extradition bill that would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial, police has fired tear gas and pepper spray at bottle-throwing demonstrators who charged officers with umbrellas outside the city’s legislature.
Large number of protesters had gathered peacefully in the Chinese-ruled city before tempers flared. Police warned them back, saying: “We will use force.” The protesters, most of them young people dressed in black, had erected barricades as they prepared to hunker down for an extended occupation of the area, in scenes reminiscent of pro-democracy “Occupy” protests that gridlocked the former British colony in 2014.
Protesters rallied in and around Lung Wo Road, a main east-west artery near the offices of embattled Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, as hundreds of armed riot police, some with plastic shields, warned them to stop advancing.
“Didn’t we say at the end of the Umbrella movement we would be back?” pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo said, referring to the name often used for the “Occupy” demonstrations, whose trademark was the yellow umbrella.
“Now we are back!” she said as supporters echoed her words. Others once again called for Lam to step down.
Protests over extradition bill in Hong Kong: Police fires tear gas and pepper spray
