Four months of Hong Kong protests: how peaceful mass marches escalated to intense violence, a bitterly divided society and a loss of innocence

An estimated 1 million people marched peacefully on June 9, calling for the withdrawal of a controversial extradition bill

Four months on, the city has become familiar with the sight of trashed MTR stations and petrol bombs hitting the street, while more than 2,000 have been arrested

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Four months since the start of the protests, Hong Kong has become familiar with intense violence, wanton destruction and a divided society, while more than 2,000 people have been arrested. Illustration: Adolfo Arranz

Published: 7:00am, 9 Oct 2019Updated: 6:21am, 10 Oct 2019

All was peaceful when an estimated 1 million people took to the streets of Hong Kong on June 9 to protest against an extradition bill that would have allowed fugitives to be sent to mainland China, among other jurisdictions.

They marched for 7½ hours that day, without any incident. No window panes were broken. No bricks were hurled at police officers. No fires were set. No MTR stations were trashed.

Today, four months later, that event seems like a distant memory of a very different Hong Kong.

Since then, the city has experienced 18 consecutive weeks of increasingly violent protests, nearly all including clashes between masked, black-clad crowds and police.

The more radical among the protesters have blocked roads, set off fires, hurled petrol bombs, destroyed MTR stations and vandalised banks and restaurants regarded as having links with Beijing.

In separate incidents, protesters stormed the Legislative Council complex, and besieged the Beijing liaison office, pelting it with eggs, defacing the national emblem and spray-painting anti-Beijing expletives on its walls. Protests have disrupted flights at Hong Kong’s international airport and caused the MTR system to be shut down completely for the first time in 40 years.