Protest Organisers Say 130,000 Joined March

Protesters were rallying outside government headquarters in Admiralty on Sunday night, after tens of thousands snaked through the streets of Causeway Bay and Wan Chai to show their opposition to changes to the extradition law.

Organisers from the Civil Human Rights Front put the total of marchers at 130,000. Police, who typically give much lower estimates for protest turnouts, put the figure at 22,800.

The first marchers left Causeway Bay before 4pm. The end of the march finally reached Admiralty some time after 7pm.

Veteran democracy campaigner and lawyer Martin Lee was among those on the march. He said: "I don't expect this government to listen to the people now. So more and more people must come out. There will be more demonstrations."

He pointed to the example of 2003, when half a million people marched against national security laws.

However acting chief executive Matthew Cheung said the large numbers of people taking part was not the point. He claimed the protesters did not understand the proposed amendments. He expressed hope that lawmakers would begin scrutinising the proposal soon.

The amendments would allow Hong Kong to extradite people to any jurisdiction, even those with which it does not have a formal agreement, on a case-by-case basis.

The government has cited the case of a local teenager who's accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend in Taiwan as one of the reasons to amend the extradition law.

The High Court will sentence 19-year-old Chan Tong-Kai for money-laundering on Monday, but he can't be charged over the murder because there's no extradition agreement in place with Taiwan.