Hong Kong rioters block roads as clashes continue
ANTI-GOVERNMENT protesters have used burning barricades to block roads near Hong Kong’s airport and damaged a train station following a night of violent clashes with police.
The express train and some bus services to the airport on the outlying island of Chek Lap Kok were suspended.
Some passengers walked to the airport, one of Asia’s busiest, carrying their luggage.
Hong Kong has been the scene of tense anti-government protests for nearly three months.
The demonstrations began in response to a proposed extradition law and have expanded to include other grievances and demands for more democracy and the resignation of the semi-autonomous Chinese territory’s leader.
The protests are an embarrassment to China’s ruling Communist Party ahead of October 1 celebrations of its 70th anniversary in
power. The protesters complain Beijing and the government of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam are eroding the autonomy and civil liberties promised when the former British colony was returned to China in 1997.
On Sunday, the MTR suspended the train service to the airport after several hundred protesters gathered there following calls online to disrupt transportation.
They blocked buses arriving at the airport but police in riot helmets kept them out of the terminal.
The government said 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.
The protests followed a night of violent clashes between protesters and police.
On Saturday, protesters threw petrol bombs at government headquarters.
Police stormed a subway car and hit passengers with clubs and pepper spray.
A total of 63 people were arrested at the Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei and Prince Edward subway stations, police announced. The youngest was a 13-year-old accused of possessing two petrol bombs.