Protesters in Hong Kong disrupts train services

Hundreds of commuters in Hong Kong were met with train disruptions as anti-government protesters blocked train services during the early morning rush hour on Tuesday.

Train service in the east was delayed and later suspended after dozens of protesters, some clad in black and wearing masks, tried to prevent a Whampoa-bound train at Tiu Keng Leng Station in Sai Kung from leaving.

People in Hong Kong are protesting from the past three months against an extradition bill that would have allowed people in Hong Kong to be sent to mainland China for trial.

The bill was suspended but now the protests have turned into a wider backlash against the city’s government and its political masters in Beijing.

Protests have occurred almost daily, sometimes with little notice, disrupting business, piling pressure on Hong Kong’s beleaguered government and stretching the city’s police force, which some have accused of using excessive force.

Activists blocked train doors, playing havoc with services and forcing hundreds of people to stream out of railway stations in search of alternative transport.

Hong Kong, which returned to China in 1997, is embroiled in its worst political crisis for decades after two months of increasingly violent protests that have posed one of the gravest populist challenges to Communist Party rulers in Beijing.

China on Monday reiterated its support for Hong Kong’s embattled leader, Carrie Lam, and its police and urged Hong Kong people to oppose violence.

The latest protest follows a demonstration at the Chinese-ruled city’s international airport on Friday and violent protests at the weekend when activists clashed with police who fired rubber bullets, tear gas and sponge grenades - a crowd-control weapon.