Hong Kong reopens after violent weekend
HONG KONG: Businesses and metro stations in Hong Kong reopened as usual yesterday after a chaotic Sunday when police fired water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who blocked roads and threw petrol bombs outside government headquarters.
On Sunday, what began as a mostly peaceful protest spiralled into violence in some of the Chinese territory’s busiest shopping and tourist districts.
Thousands of antigovernment protesters, many clad in black masks, caps and shades to obscure their identity, raced through the streets, engaging in catandmouse tactics with police, setting street fires and blocking roads in the heart of Hong Kong.
The demonstrations are the latest in nearly four months of sometimes violent protests.
Protesters are furious over what they see as creeping interference by Beijing in Hong Kong’s affairs despite promises by Beijing to grant the city wideranging autonomy and freedoms denied in mainland China.
Dozens of university students rallied peacefully yesterday afternoon urging authorities to listen to public demands. Dressed in black, some of them donning face masks, students sang Glory to Hong Kong, a song that has become a rallying cry for more democratic freedoms in the semiautonomous Chinese hub.
At Baptist University, hundreds of students also marched to demand the university’s management offer support to a student reporter arrested on Sunday.
Police yesterday said 89 people were arrested over the weekend after ‘‘radical protesters’’ attacked two police officers on Sunday evening, hurling petrol bombs, bricks, and threatening the safety of the officers.
Nearly 1500 people have been arrested since the protests started in June. — Reuters