Government offices in Hong Kong remains shut amid extradition bill protests

Authorities have shut some government offices in Hong Kong's financial district after the worst violence the city has seen in decades.

Scuffles broke out between protesters and police in Hong Kong on Thursday as hundreds of people remained on the streets to protest a planned extradition law with mainland China, a day after police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators.

Protester numbers around the city’s legislature, the epicentre of the violence, swelled during Thursday to thousands at one stage, with some protesters rushing to stop police from removing supplies of face masks and food.

Uniformed police with helmets and shields blocked overhead walkways in Hong Kong’s financial district, while a long row of police vans was parked nearby.

Plainclothes police officers checked commuters’ identity papers as a massive clean up was underway, clearing streets of debris, like broken umbrellas used by protesters to protect themselves and broken barricades, left from the violent clashes.

Despite the widespread opposition, the government has not backed down.

However, Hong Kong's Legislative Council (LegCo) delayed a second reading of the controversial extradition bill and it is unclear when it will take place.

The extradition bill, which will cover Hong Kong residents and foreign and Chinese nationals living or travelling through the city, has sparked concerns it may threaten the rule of law that underpins Hong Kong’s international financial status.

Hong Kong was a British colony from 1841 until sovereignty was returned to China in 1997.

It is now part of China under a "one country, two systems" principle, which ensures that it keeps its own judicial independence, its own legislature and economic system.

But people in Hong Kong are worried that should the extradition bill pass, it would bring Hong Kong more decisively under China's control.

Most people in Hong Kong are ethnic Chinese but the majority of them don't identify as Chinese - with some young activists even calling for Hong Kong's independence from China.

But Carrie Lam's government says the amendments are required to plug loopholes in the law that effectively make Hong Kong a haven for those wanted on the mainland.

She has also said there will be legally binding human rights safeguards.