March Organisers Announce End To Mass Rally

Organisers of Sunday's anti-extradition rally at Victoria Park announced an end to the protest there at around 9pm, prompting thousands of people who had converged there throughout the day to slowly melt away into the night.

The Civil Human Rights Front said it would announce its estimate of the turnout later in the evening.

However, many thousands of people remain on the streets stretching from Causeway Bay to Admiralty, disrupting traffic. They have so far not been confronted by the police.

The transport network on Hong Kong Island was overwhelmed for much of the day, with the constant crush of protesters either trying to get to the park or leave it, overloading the MTR's Island line and and the streets above.

The railway suspended services to Causeway Bay, Tin Hau and Fortress Hill stations intermittently through the afternoon in a bid to thin out the crowds.

But even though police had banned a planned march following the rally, hundreds of thousands of people nonetheless walked en masse to Central and elsewhere, saying they had no choice but to leave the area by foot because of the disruptions to the MTR network.