Protesters stormed Hong Kong’s Legislative Council building on Monday night, spray-painting graffiti on the walls and vandalising paintings, in one of the biggest challenges to Beijing’s authority since the territory’s handover from the UK to China 22 years ago.
Wearing construction helmets and wielding uprooted street signs and railings, hundreds of demonstrators smashed their way through the doors and streamed into the multistorey complex overlooking Hong Kong’s harbour, occupying it for several hours and worsening a political crisis facing Asia’s premier financial centre.
Police, who had been waiting inside, disappeared before the protesters entered but a few hours later began a sweeping operation, firing tear gas to clear streets around the building.