HONG KONG, China. * 1 de julio de 2019.
] Reuters
Hong Kong police fired tear gas in running battles with hundreds of protesters, some of whom stormed the legislature, destroyed pictures and daubed walls with graffiti, on the anniversary of the city’s 1997 return to Chinese rule on Monday.
Police arrived in a convoy of buses as about a thousand protesters, furious at a proposed law allowing extraditions to China, were gathered around the Legislative Council building in the former British colony’s financial district in a direct challenge to authorities in Beijing.
Police fired several rounds of tear gas as protesters held up umbrellas to protect themselves or fled. Plumes of smoke billowed across major thoroughfares and in between some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers.
Most demonstrators had been cleared by the early hours of Tuesday after some of the most violent protests to rock the city in decades. It was not clear if any arrests were made.
Umbrellas, metal barriers, hard hats, water bottles and other debris lay strewn across major roads. Police removed metal barriers and other blockades from some thoroughfares in a bid to clear them ahead of businesses reopening on Tuesday.
