Hong Kong: Tear gas and petrol bombs as police and protesters clash
Protesters are planning to disrupt the airport after a night of running battles between police and pro-democracy activists.
Sunday 1 September 2019 05:32, UK
Hong Kong police have fired tear gas and used a water cannon on anti-government protesters - who responded by throwing petrol bombs toward police lines.
Sky News witnessed the confrontation outside government headquarters on Saturday.
Protesters pointed laser beams at police and appeared to throw objects over large barriers keeping them away from the building.
Officers responded by firing tear gas into the crowds from the other side of the barriers. Police later fired blue-coloured water from a cannon at them too.
Protesters took cover behind umbrellas, but Reuters reported that some responded by throwing petrol bombs toward police lines.
In the evening, parts of the metro system ground to a halt as skirmishes spread to the subway, with video images shot by local broadcaster TVB showing several police officers swinging batons at people cowering behind their umbrellas.
Three stations remained closed on Sunday morning.
"A large group of protesters participated in unlawful assembly in various districts since yesterday, despite polices objection and warning," the police said in a statement.
"The level of violence is rapidly escalating and their illegal acts have no regard to the laws of Hong Kong."
Protest organisers have urged the public to overwhelm road and rail links to the airport on Sunday and Monday, potentially disrupting flights.
A similar so-called "stress test" of the airport last weekend failed.
People took to the streets on Saturday in a largely peaceful, meandering rally through the city's downtown.
Sky's Alex Crawford said there was a sense that tear gas and water cannon are not as effective at dispersing the crowds anymore.
"They are very used to it. They are very hardened. And they are utterly undeterred," she said, as protesters around her, wearing helmets and gas masks, crouched in anticipation of further police action.
However, Crawford said there was still a great deal of fear and anxiety about the demonstrations.
"It’s all very well being brave in a huge crowd. It’s very different when you are getting arrested on your own at 7 o’clock in the morning," she said, in reference to a number of prominent pro-democracy activists including arrested on Friday.
The protesters retreated when police arrived to clear them from the area, but reassembled later on Saturday.
They built a barricade and set a fire in the heart of Hong Kong's commercial district.
The fire was later extinguished by firefighters, with the protesters retreating ahead of a police advance.
Police in riot gear prepared to clear the street, but most of the protesters had already left.
They arrested a few people while trying to re-establish control.
Authorities had previously turned down an application for the march to the Chinese government office to mark the fifth anniversary of a decision by China's ruling Communist Party against fully democratic elections in Hong Kong.
But protesters took to the streets anyway in what is the 13th straight weekend of demonstrations that have plunged the Chinese-ruled city into its worst political crisis in decades.
The protests were originally sparked by a now-suspended extradition bill that would have allowed extraditions to China.
The demonstrators are demanding full withdrawal of the bill, democractic elections and an inquiry into alleged police brutality.