HONG KONG: Riot police in Hong Kong fired sustained volleys of tear gas canisters and rubber bullets on Sunday during hours of running battles with pro-democracy protesters close to Beijing’s office in the city, plunging the financial hub deeper into crisis.

The clashes are the second consecutive day of violence in a city reeling from weeks of anti-government protests that show no sign of abating.

Sunday’s melees took place in a well-heeled residential district close to the Liaison Office, which represents Beijing in the semi-autonomous hub and which was pelted with eggs and paint last week.

Police and protesters had been engaged in a tense standoff for hours after tens of thousands of demonstrators held a series of unsanctioned marches through the city.

A group of some 200 protesters had made their way towards the Liaison Office in Sheung Wan district where they met a phalanx of riot police who used loudhailers calling for the crowds to end their “illegal assembly”.

Eventually, tear gas and rubber bullets were fired at demonstrators who responded with volleys of bricks and stones as baton-wielding riot police pushed the crowds back in some of the most sustained and violent clashes seen so far.

Officers from the police’s elite “Raptor” squads made multiple arrests, almost all of them young men and women. Several protesters were injured, as well as two journalists.

The renewed violence comes a day after a town near the border with mainland China descended into chaos as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters holding another banned rally against suspected pro-government triad gangs who beat up democracy demonstrators there last weekend.

Despite facing unprecedented levels of public anger and frustration, the city’s pro-Beijing leadership are seemingly unable, or unwilling, to end the chaos.

Hong Kong has been plunged into its worst crisis in recent history after millions of demonstrators took to the streets and sporadic violent confrontations erupted between police and pockets of hardcore protesters.

The demonstrations over the last seven weeks were triggered by a controversial bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, but have evolved into a call for wider democratic reforms and a halt to sliding freedoms.

Yet the unprecedented protests with huge turnouts — as well as frequent clashes and the sacking of parliament — have had little luck persuading Beijing or Hong Kong’s leaders.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2019