With tougher security, Hong Kong airport returns to normal after anti-government protests
- Violent clashes brought the city’s air traffic to a halt on Tuesday, prompting injunction against demonstrations
- Riot police and private security guards were stationed at the site
Hong Kong International Airport was back to normal on Thursday morning, two days after bosses there got a court injunction against unauthorised demonstrations.
The 70 or so protesters at the site the previous evening were nowhere to be seen, as their placards and leaflets were either removed or being cleared away.
On Tuesday, violent clashes between police and protesters at the airport – one of the world’s busiest – brought the city’s air traffic to a halt. Demonstrators had been there since Friday, in an action which escalated gradually.
During the fracas, protesters tied up, beat and tormented two mainland Chinese men, one of them a journalist, whom they accused of being spies. A police officer was beaten and had his baton snatched by protesters, prompting him to draw his gun.
Protesters apologised for the disruption, which caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The statement from “a group of fellow Hongkongers longing for freedom and democracy” said they felt helpless regarding what they called an overreaction by some of their comrades, without referring to specific incidents.