Hong Kong police fire tear gas as protesters take over parliament

Hundreds of protesters in Hong Kong swarmed into the legislature’s main building yesterday night, tearing down portraits of legislative leaders and spray-painting pro-democracy slogans on the walls of the main chamber as the territory marked its 22nd anniversary of retrocession to China.

They ransacked the building, daubing its walls with anti-government graffiti and prompting a police warning of an impending crackdown.  The financial hub has been rocked by three weeks of record-breaking demonstrations against a hugely unpopular bill that would allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland.

Police carrying riot shields and firing tear gas moved in shortly after midnight to clear surrounding streets. The flashing blue and red lights of dozens of police vans and buses lit up the abandoned streets leading to the legislature.

Earlier in the day huge crowds of peaceful democracy activists staged a march, calling for the city’s pro-Beijing leader to step down and reverse what they see as years of sliding freedoms.

But the atmosphere deteriorated as Monday wore on and a hardcore group of protesters brached parliament after hours of siege.

The protesters whacked away at thick glass windows until they shattered and broke and pried open steel security gates and propped them open with barricades to get inside. Police in riot gear retreated as the protesters entered about 9 p.m., avoiding a confrontation and giving them the run of the building.

They stood on lawmakers’ desks in the main legislative chamber, painted over the territory’s emblem high up on a wooden wall and wrote slogans calling for a democratic election of the city’s leader and denouncing now-suspended extradition legislation that sparked the protests. Many wore yellow and white helmets, face masks and the black T-shirts that have become their uniform..

The actions prompted organizers of a separate peaceful march against the extradition bill to change the endpoint of their protest from the legislature to a nearby park, after police asked them to either call it off or change the route.