Hong Kong government forced to hold flag-raising ceremony inside for first time as rain threatens, and protesters and police clash in the streets

Hong Kong celebrated the handover of sovereignty to China indoors for the first time on Monday amid heavy security, violent clashes between police and protesters, and rain.

After some early morning showers, the government said the flag-raising ceremony scheduled for 8am would be moved from the waterfront of the city’s Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai to inside the complex, after the heavens opened around 6am.

While the flags themselves were raised outside, guests watched proceedings via a live broadcast from inside the exhibition centre before Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor made a six-minute speech in which she promised to reform her administration’s governing style, starting with herself.

Security had been stepped up markedly compared to previous years, with layers of water-filled barricades set up around the exhibition centre, while dozens of police officers guarded the entrance, and marine police patrolled Victoria Harbour.

Police said 13 officers were sent to hospital after clashes with protesters in the streets nearby. A source said the injured officers had been splashed with an unidentified liquid that was believed to be drain cleaner.

A statement issued at 11.30am condemning the violence said the officers were hurt during clashes at Lung Wo Road, Tim Mei Avenue and Harcourt Road at around 9.30am. It said some of those injured could hardly breathe and their skin had swelled.

Earlier, police had used pepper spray to disperse a crowd of protesters gathered near the exhibition centre.

Police warned protesters to stop the violence and leave the area as soon as possible, and have urged the public to stay away from the Wan Chai and Admiralty areas of the city.

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Officers equipped with shields and batons clashed with hundreds of protesters near the convention centre around 30 minutes before the flag-raising ceremony began, and used pepper spray to move them back.

A couple of kilometres away on Harcourt Road in Admiralty, about 1,000 protesters blocked the road, while nearby, more police, including dozens of officers from the special tactical squad, faced off with Lung Hop Street and Lung Wo Road.

Police officers held shields, batons and tear gas guns, while protesters in yellow raincoats and helmets hid behind a stretch of umbrellas they had unfurled.

In expectation of more protesters arriving in the area, train operator MTR Corporation closed Admiralty and Wan Chai MTR stations at the request of police.

Passengers travelling to Tsim Sha Tsui had to change at Central station instead. Services between Ocean Park and Admiralty were suspended, with a replacement bus service operating between Kennedy Town station and the theme park.

After the flags were raised, there were other celebrations on sea and air.

Two helicopters carrying the national and Special Administrative Region flags were flying above the harbour, while a fireboat near the convention centre was spraying water.

However, most of the convention centre waterfront was sealed off from public access for security reasons.

Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive and her under-fire administration celebrated the 22nd anniversary of the handover from Britain to China in 1997 against the backdrop of the ongoing political crisis, and two weeks after the controversial extradition bill was suspended.

Hundreds of guests including officials, business leaders and dignitaries attended the indoor ceremony.

Lam, who led the brief ceremony, made her first public appearance since she apologised on June 18 for her poor handling of the extradition bill.

Wearing a black dress and a white jacket, the chief executive was accompanied by her husband Lam Siu-por and other officials, who had arrived by ferry to avoid the trouble spots on the roads.

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As the city’s leader began her six-minute speech democrat lawmaker, Helena Wong Pik-wan, repeatedly shouted, “Carrie Lam step down, withdraw the evil law”. Wong was quickly taken away by security guards.

Without stopping, Lam promised to reform her style of government immediately, and improve communication with lawmakers across the political spectrum, and with people from all walks of life.

“I will learn the lesson,” she said, referring to the extradition bill.

The bill, which was floated in February, was suspended on June 15 after a series of marches and protests that saw that hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets of Hong Kong.

The legislation would have allowed the city to send fugitives to jurisdictions with which it did not have an extradition agreement, including mainland China.

At the exhibition centre’s entrance, protesters were prevented from going further by metal and water barriers.

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When installation artist Sanmu, who would not give his real name, and two of his friends tried to enter at about 6.45am he said they were told the centre “is not open to the public”.

The trio waved three black flags, which the artist said represented the state of the city. He was supposed to be joined by more friends, but they turned back after being intercepted by police officers.

“I am very angry,” he said. “The government is so weak that it dares not see our face.”

Another protester who made it through the heavy police presence was Alex Chung, also an artist.

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The musician said he was stopped twice, once by police officers and another time by a security guard.

“You can’t complain [when you’re] living under an authoritarian regime,” Chung said.

Chung, Sanmu, and others will take part in the annual July 1 march later on Monday.

“But I am very tired. Can the government leave us alone?” said Chung, who has attended most of the protests over the past few weeks.

As in previous years, ousted lawmaker “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung and his League of Social Democrats group were out with a coffin they use as a prop.

“Step down, Carrie Lam,” he and other protesters yelled. He also called for an independent inquiry into the police’s handling of recent protests.

Officers initially stopped him from getting close to the entrance of the flag-raising ceremony, but they later relented and let him move nearer.

Protesters had been gathering in Admiralty since the early hours of Monday, with some moving metal barriers to the junctions of Tim Mei Avenue and Lung Wo Road.

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Others moved objects such as traffic cones to the junctions of Tim Wa Avenue and Lung Wo Road, and placed fences on Harcourt Road.

Anti-riot police stationed in the area raised yellow and the red warning flags, and videos posted on the force’s Facebook page urged protesters to stop blocking roads and to leave the area as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, about 10 people took down the regional flag of Hong Kong, near the protest area of the Legislative Council complex in Admiralty, away from the ceremony site, at around 10.15am.

Covering themselves with umbrellas, they re-hoisted it so it was upside down.

They quickly left after the act, and did not answer to questions as to why they had done so.

Earlier, the national flag, which was flying next to the regional one, was replaced by a black version, which imitated the Bauhinia flower pattern of the SAR flag.

Under the Regional Flag and Regional Emblem Ordinance, any public and wilful desecration of the Hong Kong regional flag either by “burning, mutilating, scrawling on, defiling or trampling on it” could attract a maximum imprisonment of three years and a fine of HK$50,000 (US$6,400).

Additional reporting by Su Xinqi