Hong Kong Police evicts pro-democracy protesters camp

AP

The Hong Kong’s authorities dismantled today a pro-democracy protest camp near the heart of the financial center, ending two months and a half of demonstrations that have paralyzed parts of the city controlled by China.

Hundreds of policemen raided the place, dismantling tents and barricades set up for 11 weeks in the Admiralty business district, close to the seat of power.

Earlier, the police of the former British colony had given 30 minutes to activists still concentrated in the camp to disperse.

One of the student leaders, Alex Chow, had encouraged the crowd as the police approached, saying that their struggle was not over and they would persist in civil disobedience in the coming days. “People will come again, will come back with more force,” he said.

The start of the protests was conceived in September, when the Chinese Communist authorities insisted that candidates for local elections of 2017 had to be approved by an official committee.