Hong Kong protesters use burning barricades to block access to international airport
Transport operator MTR suspended a train service to the airport after several hundred demonstrators gathered there.
Sunday 1 September 2019 14:53, UK
Pro-democracy protesters set fire to barricades to block roads to Hong Kong International Airport, as an express train and some bus services to the transport hub were suspended on Sunday.
Anti-government demonstrators also damaged a train station after a night of violent clashes with police.
Some passengers were seen carrying their luggage as they walked to the airport on the outlying island of Chek Lap Kok.
Hong Kong transport operator Mass Transit Railway (MTR) suspended the train service to the airport after several hundred protesters gathered there.
The demonstrators had responded to online calls to disrupt transport services.
They were able to block buses arriving at the airport, but riot police were able to keep the protesters out of the terminal.
The government claimed some protesters threw objects at police, and that iron poles, bricks and rocks were thrown on to the tracks of the airport train.
After protesters began to stream away from the airport late in the afternoon, some attacked a train station in the adjacent Tung Chung area.
They used metal bars to smash lights and broke open a fire hose valve, sending water gushing across the floor.
Protesters set up barricades on two adjacent streets and set fire to some of them.
Firefighters arrived a few minutes later to douse the blaze.
Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford, who was at Hong Kong International Airport, said: "The protesters have built barricades all the way around the airport.
"They have shut down all the roads to the airport.
"They have drizzled gasoline, petrol along bits of road and and they are just about to set it alight."
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She added: "The protesters have a great deal of anger following repeated claims of police brutality.
"But there's also a real anger about the lack of progress, of any shifting on either side on this seemingly intractable gulf between the protesters and the authorities."
Demonstrators also gathered outside the British Consulate in Hong Kong on Sunday, where they called on London to grant citizenship to people born before the former UK colony was returned to China in 1997.
About 200 protesters waved British flags and chanted "equal rights now!" and "stand with Hong Kong!"
A saxophonist in dark glasses played God Save The Queen.
After the UK handed Hong Kong back to China, many people wanted Britain to grant citizenship to those born in the territory before 1997.
London refused, instead giving people in the colony British National Overseas passports that can be used to travel but not settle in the United Kingdom.
Gary Law, one of the protesters, said: "I hope the British government can change its nationality law."
Protesters threw petrol bombs at government headquarters, while police stormed a subway car and hit passengers with clubs and pepper spray on Saturday night.
Officers arrested 63 people at the Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei and Prince Edward subway stations.
The youngest was a 13-year-old accused of possessing two petrol bombs.
Protesters took to the streets on Saturday after police refused permission for a march to mark the fifth anniversary of a decision by China against fully democratic elections in Hong Kong.
Two police officers fired warning shots into the air after being surrounded by protesters, the government said.
It was the second time police fired warning shots, following an incident the previous weekend.
Hong Kong has been the scene of tense anti-government protests for nearly three months, which started as peaceful action against a proposed extradition law.
The demonstrations have since expanded to include other grievances, such as demands for more democracy and the resignation of the territory's chief executive Carrie Lam.
The protests are an embarrassment to China's ruling Communist ahead of celebrations of its 70th anniversary in power on 1 October.