THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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Hong Kong protesters defiant after tear gas chaos

Hong Kong protesters defiant after tear gas chaos

HONG KONG (AFP) - Thousands of defiant Hong Kong protesters stood their ground on Monday after facing tear gas and riot police in overnight clashes, paralysing parts of the city with their campaign to demand Beijing allow free elections.

In the worst unrest since the former British colony was handed back to China in 1997, demonstrators fought hours of running battles with police, choking on clouds of tear gas as officers attempted to control the seething crowds.
 
Throughout the morning thousands of people were refusing to budge from at least three major thoroughfares on Hong Kong's main island and across the harbour, with many schools and businesses shuttered as widespread disruption left many commuters struggling to get to work.
 
Exhausted protesters sheltered from the fierce sun under umbrellas, with some trying to snatch some sleep on the ground. 
 
The demonstrators have stuck to their demands for full universal suffrage after Beijing last month said it would allow elections for the semi-autonomous city's next leader in 2017 but would vet the candidates -- a decision branded a "fake democracy". 
 
Tensions dropped significantly after city authorities withdrew riot police as dawn broke. 
 
"Because the citizens gathered on the streets have calmed, riot police have been withdrawn," a statement on the government website read, calling on protesters to do the same. 
 
But demonstrators showed little sign of standing down.
 
"We are more confident now -- the police don't have enough officers to close down the districts where there are protests," Ivan Yeung, a 27-year-old who works in marketing, told AFP after a night camped out in the busy Causeway Bay shopping district.
 
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