Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Hong Kong on Sunday to protest against a proposed extradition law that would allow suspects to be sent to China to face trial.
Time-lapse footage filmed from a high-rise building showed the impressive turnout as the crowds marched through Causeway Bay and Wanchai shopping and residential districts toHong Kong’s parliament, where debates are set to start on Wednesday for the government’s amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance.
Witnesses at various key points estimated the crowd at several hundred thousands. Police chiefs called for public restraint, government-funded broadcaster RTHK reported, as they mobilized more than 2,000 officers for a march that organizers expect to draw more than 500,000 people.
The protest descended into violence in the early hours of Monday as several hundred protesters clashed with a similar number of police outside the city’s parliament.
