Another Mass Rally Ends With Tear Gas, Bullets

The familiar pattern of peaceful mass rally followed by clashes between demonstrators and police returned to Hong Kong on Sunday as the protests, which started as a campaign against the government's bid to amend the extradition laws, continued to spiral out of control.

Organisers said over 430,000 had participated in the peaceful march during the day, although the demonstators refused to stop at the Southorn Playground in Wan Chai, the end point that police had sanctioned.

They marched on towards Admiralty and Central, with some protesters heading on to Beijing's liaison office in Western District.

They stuck banners on the gates of the building, sprayed graffiti, and demanded that liaison office director Wang Zhimin come out and address them.

They hurled eggs and defaced the national emblem, and spray painted the CCTV cameras in what was the worst attack ever on the central government's representative office in Hong Kong.

Police seemed to have caught by surprise as the liaison office was largely unguarded. But they gathered their wits and about an hour later announced they would soon clear the area, at which the protesters withdrew.

They moved to Sheung Wan and gathered near Shun Tak Centre as riot police advanced from Sai Ying Poon.

After a brief stand off on Connaught Road, Central, protesters started moving towards the police cordon, throwing bricks and other objects at officers.

Police then fired several rounds of tear gas, but it failed to disperse the crowd and eventually they fired rubber bullets as clashes escalated.

.

Things were soon brought under control and by 11.30pm most of the protesters started dispersing.

Some activists did remain facing a large number of riot police near the Macau ferry terminal in Sheung Wan.

By then the atmosphere was generally calm and traffic on Connaught Road Central partially resumed after 1am.