Hundreds of Hong Kong protesters march to Kwong Wah Hospital, claiming city’s health care system overwhelmed by mainland Chinese migrants

Hundreds of localist activists and their supporters marched to a Hong Kong public hospital on Sunday to show support for medical staff they said were overburdened by a flood of migrants from mainland China.

Members of more than 10 political parties, interest groups and nurses’ representatives claimed a scheme allowing 150 mainlanders a day to relocate to the city was a source of overcrowding at public hospitals as well as medical blunders.

The protest was the second in the past week against the so-called one-way permit scheme. Organisers claimed 1,000 took part, while police put the number at 380.

Waving banners and placards with messages including “Hong Kong is sinking” and “China colonisation causing Hong Kong explosion”, the demonstrators chanted slogans calling for the scheme to be scrapped as they marched through the streets of Mong Kok, a downtown shopping district in Kowloon popular with mainland visitors.

Some protesters carried pots bearing labels with the word “explosion”, in reference to a local slang term that describes pressure reaching a point at which a blast occurs.