Hong Kong’s rail operator partially reopened the city’s metro system on Sunday after an unprecedented shutdown but kept many typically busy stations closed as the Chinese territory braced for large demonstrations later in the day, Trend reports citing Reuters.
Violent protests erupted across the Asian financial center on Friday hours after its embattled leader Carrie Lam invoked colonial-era emergency powers, last used more than 50 years ago, to curb months of unrest.
The night’s “extreme violence” justified the use of the emergency law, Beijing-backed Lam said in a television address on Saturday.
The city felt eerily quiet on Saturday with the subway and most shopping malls closed and many roads deserted. Hundreds of anti-government protesters defied a ban on face masks and took to the streets across the city earlier in the day, but by evening they had largely dispersed.