Petrifying moment riot police charge Hong Kong protestors after barrage of tear gas -VIDEO

The colossal midnight protests were said to resemble a “war zone”. Sky’s Deborah Haynes explained: “This looks like a war zone, almost. These sorts of scenes are going to be very concerning for Beijing because obviously they’re in control now and this is very much out of control.

“So the question is: how are they going to regain back the parliament building from the protesters?

“Are they going to manage to get these protesters out without violence or are they going to have resort to rubber bullets?”

Hong Kong police moved in to clear hundreds of protesters who stormed the legislature on the anniversary of the city’s 1997 return to Chinese rule on Monday, destroying pictures and daubing walls with graffiti in a direct challenge to China.

The police arrived by bus and ran into position as about a thousand gathered around the Legislative Council building in the heart of the former British colony’s financial district.

JUST IN: Hong Kong news: Protestors clash with police in fresh violence – is it safe to travel to?

Protesters carried road signs, others corrugated iron sheets and pieces of scaffolding, as they barged into the council building. Some sat at legislators’ desks, checking their phones, while others scrawled “anti-extradition” on chamber walls.

Other graffiti called for Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to step down, while pictures of some lawmakers were defaced.

“HK Is Not China” was painted in black on a white pillar.

The government called for an immediate end to the violence, saying it had stopped all work on extradition bill amendments and that the legislation would automatically lapse in July next year.

Banners hanging over flyovers at the protest site read: “Free Hong Kong.”

The protesters, some with cling film wrapped around their arms to protect their skin in the event of tear gas, once again paralysed parts of the Asian financial hub as they occupied roads after blocking them off with metal barriers.

Lam suspended the extradition bill on June 15 after some of the largest and most violent protests in the city in decades, but stopped short of protesters’ demands to scrap it.

It was not immediately clear if the announcement that it would lapse would ease the tension.

The Beijing-backed leader is now clinging on to her job at a time of an unprecedented backlash against the government that poses the greatest popular challenge to Chinese leader Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012.

“The kind of deafness that I see in the government this time around despite these protests is really worrying. The complete disregard for the will of the people is what alarms me,” said Steve, a British lawyer who has worked in Hong Kong for 30 years.

“If this bill is not completely scrapped, I will have no choice but to leave my home, Hong Kong.”

Opponents of the extradition bill, which would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial in courts controlled by the Communist Party, fear it is a threat to Hong Kong’s much-cherished rule of law.

Hong Kong returned to China under a “one country, two systems” formula that allows freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China, including freedom to protest and an independent judiciary.

Beijing denies interfering but, for many Hong Kong residents, the extradition bill is the latest step in a relentless march towards mainland control.

source: express.co.uk