Hong Kong police clashed with thousands of protesters on Sunday as they sought to defend China’s main representative office from crowds seething over what many see as an increasing cycle of violence against them. More: by JamesPomfret SGardnerReuters
HONG KONG - Hong Kong police clashed with thousands of protesters on Sunday, as they sought to defend China’s main representative office from crowds seething over what many see as an increasing cycle of violence against them.
On Sunday, a peaceful gathering in a park in the city’s central business district rapidly morphed into a march, as tens of thousands of black-clad protesters set off in several directions, clogging up major thoroughfares. As the crowds surged, hundreds of riot police with shields advanced, firing rounds of tear gas, rubber bullets and sponge grenades - a crowd control weapon - at protesters, sending clouds of acrid, burning smoke through the streets.The mostly young activists in hard hats, gas masks, and body armor dug in, dismantling street signs and fences which they used to form makeshift barricades to slow police advances.
Under a “one country, two systems” formula instituted as part of China’s sovereignty in 1997, the city was promised wide-ranging freedoms denied citizens in mainland China. Protesters responded to police with bricks, eggs and sling shots, as well as home-made gas cannisters, paint balls and, more rarely, Molotov cocktails.
China denies interfering in Hong Kong and has warned that the violent protests over the proposed legislation allowing extraditions to mainland China were an “undisguised challenge” to the formula under which it is ruled.Many of the marchers on Sunday chanted slogans against the police. Some held up banners reading: “We rise as one, we fight as one” and “Stop violence”.
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