Hong Kong police used water cannon for the first time and fired tear gas at protesters as the political crisis afflicting the Asian financial hub for months turned violent for a second consecutive day.
Protesters on Sunday afternoon blocked roads and hurled petrol bombs at police hours after family members of the police held a separate rally elsewhere in the city. They called on Carrie Lam, the city’s chief executive, to formulate a political solution rather than relying on the police to quell the movement, as the force has become a target of anger for its handling of the crisis.
Ms Lam’s push to pass an extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for the first time sparked the protests in June. The proposed law has been suspended but the demonstrators’ grievances have expanded to encompass a range of demands, including an independent investigation into the police’s handling of the protests and greater democratic freedoms in the Chinese territory.