Huge crowds march in Hong Kong, piling pressure on leader

16/6/2019 19:19

        Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents, mostly clad in black despite the sweltering weather, jammed the city's streets in a vehement show of opposition to proposed legislation that has stoked fears of expanding control from Beijing in this former British colony.
        
        The marchers are demanding that Hong Kong's leader first scrap an extradition bill that would allow some suspects to be sent for trial in mainland China and then resign. The conflict, which slipped into unusually violent clashes with police last week, is one of the toughest tests of the territory's special status since China took control in a 1997 handover.
        
        The demonstrators carried banners demanding that Chief Executive Carrie Lam step down and repeatedly broke into chants. Walking slowly and shouting "withdraw" and "resign," the crowd filled a wide thoroughfare and side streets paralleling the waterfront of Victoria Harbor as tourists and shoppers who drive much of the Asian financial hub's economy looked on.