Protesters block airport, cripple roads in city

Hong Kong ground to a halt as protesters forced the cancellation of airport trains, trapping travellers.

Anti-government protests disrupted the city’s airport Sunday, with authorities cancelling trains, which led to hours-long traffic jams on partially blocked roads that forced some travellers to walk miles with their luggage.

Around 1.30pm authorities suspended an express rail link from the city centre after hundreds of protesters gathered outside the airport in an attempt to reprise an earlier occupation that brought the terminal to a standstill. By the early evening, disruptions to transportation also left hundreds of arriving travellers trapped in the airport with no way to get to the city for several hours. Options remained limited through the evening.

Pro-democracy protesters gather outside the airport in Hong Kong after the express train to the airport was suspended. Picture; AP.

Police chased protesters who moved to other districts, barricading roads and setting fires in a second day of confrontations as the city endured a 13th weekend of unrest. The protests were sparked by an unpopular bill that would have allowed people to be extradited to China to face trial but have broadened to include demands to protect the city’s partial autonomy from Beijing and calls for greater local democracy.

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Disruption is expected to spill into the week, with a general strike called for Monday and Tuesday, along with class boycotts at universities and high schools. Sunday’s march was intended to cause disruptions at the airport under the theme “Stuck With You.” Another airport-related protest is planned for Monday.

With no resolution in sight, the continuing unrest has damped tourism and consumer spending here and threatens to tip the city, already in the crosshairs of the US-China trade fight, into recession. On Thursday, officials said retail sales in July fell 11.4% from a year earlier.

The city’s flagship carrier, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., said Sunday that holders of tickets on Sunday and Monday could rebook their flights with no charge. It also showed about a dozen cancelled flights.

Travellers were forced to abandon their buses and walk to the airport. Picture: AP,

In the nearby district of Tung Chung, to which many of the protesters walked, video footage broadcast by local media showed protesters burning a Chinese flag. The station there was later closed after protesters vandalised it, tampering with ticket machines and readers, dismantling CCTV cameras and the glass of a customer service centre, according to police.

“The protesters totally disregarded the needs of travellers and members of the public,” the city’s government said late Sunday. “They threatened with violence and took malicious revenge on people with different views as well as innocent people and organisations. Their acts are barbaric and outrageous.”

Protesters began to gather in the early afternoon Sunday, chanting slogans including, “Stand with Hong Kong! Fight for Freedom!” The airport authority last month obtained an injunction that restrains people from obstructing the airport. It also implemented heightened security for entering the airport complex.

The city’s subway operator, MTR Corp, said it was suspending transportation to the airport at the request of the Hong Kong government and the airport authority around 1.30pm. Traffic began to back up on a bridge that connects the city to the airport at around 2pm.

Airlines had cancelled more than 40 flights at Hong Kong Sunday, though a quarter of arrivals and departures were hit with delays, according to FlightAware, an air-travel tracking service.

A highway to the airport was packed with taxis and airport-bound public buses, with online maps estimating 30 minutes of congestion on a stretch that typically takes just a few minutes to cross. Some travellers walked toward the airport, suitcases in tow.

At 4pm, the police force said that protesters were blocking roads with numerous water-filled barriers and that officers would soon conduct a dispersal operation. The announcement prompted some protesters to leave the area on foot.

Later, the police said that “a large group of protesters hurled numerous iron poles, bricks and rocks onto the track near the Airport Station of the Airport Express” train and that police would also conduct a dispersal operation there. By 6pm, the airport authority said that while roads connecting to the airport had been blocked, bus services to the airport were gradually resuming.

Jill Lou, a 34-year-old tourist flying to Hangzhou in China, spent more than three hours on a bus before deciding to walk. “This is bad, very bad. The protesters are causing a nuisance to the public,” she said, lugging a large suitcase along a sidewalk roughly 13km from the airport. Ms. Lou, who runs a clothing business in China, said the disruption was tarnishing Hong Kong’s reputation as a tourist-friendly hub.

Others joined a rush of people heading to the airport much earlier than usual to ensure they could make their flights. Ava Ho was travelling to London at midnight on a birthday trip, and decided to head to the airport by hired car around 4pm, arriving at 6pm. She had originally planned to take the Airport Express train to avoid the potential disruptions. But, when authorities decided to stop the train services, she decided to set out hours earlier than usual.

Last month, thousands of demonstrators gathered at the airport in protest, causing flight cancellations and travel disruptions. MTR Corp. said Sunday that in-town check-in services were also suspended.

The disruptions at the airport followed a day of fierce clashes between police and protesters: Volleys of tear gas were used to disperse crowds, while some demonstrators set a large fire near the city’s police headquarters. Later Saturday, live video footage from local media showed a team of black-clad police, members of an elite squad known as the Raptors, entering a train car and beating people with batons.

The scenes were followed by immediate outrage in the city, especially among the opposition camp. “Hong Kong police launch terrorist attack on citizens,” read one digital flyer circulating on the Telegram messaging app, which is popular among protesters.

Police said Sunday they had arrested 63 people in several subway stations Sunday, including a 13-year-old boy who had a Molotov cocktail on him.

Separately on Sunday, roughly 500 people gathered outside the British consulate at a rally urging the British government to take more action to protect British nationals as tensions escalate between Hong Kong, a former British colony, and China.

The Wall St Journal