More than 100,000 candle-bearers took part in the annual vigil to mourn the death of those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, one of the highest turnouts ever.
Police said 113,000 people showed up - the highest ever estimate by the force - while organisers said 150,000 attended. Thousands of people who could not get into the packed park filled nearby roads such as Great George Street and Gloucester Road after the two-hour vigil began at 8.15pm.
Szeto Wah, chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, which organises the event, said he was surprised by the huge turnout.
'I should say thank you to the government and [vice-chancellor of Chinese University] Lawrence Lau Juen-yee. The level of political wisdom of Donald Tsang is very low,' Szeto said, referring to Wednesday's ruling by a university council committee to ban permanent display of the new Goddess of Democracy statue on the campus.
Many in the crowd said they had attended the vigil to express their anger at police's confiscation of two Goddess of Democracy statues - which were inspired by the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown - at the weekend on the grounds that no licence had been obtained for 'public entertainment'.
The turnout for last night's vigil matched the estimated 150,000 people who attended last year's event and the number at the first one in 1990. Participants holding flickering candles chanted slogans calling for vindication of those killed in the bloody crackdown and an end to one-party dictatorship.