Hong Kong Spirals Deeper into Crisis as Protests Break Out for the Third Consecutive Day

Anti-communist crowds marched through Hong Kong Sunday to decry the government’s emergency powers and press their demands for political freedom. Many wore masks in open defiance of a government ban on facial coverings meant as a deterrent to protesters, whose four-month-old democratic rebellion has thrown the semi-autonomous enclave into crisis and caused consternation among China’s top leadership.

Protesters braved rain and thundery skies to assemble from lunchtime in the retail and entertainment district of Causeway Bay, chanting “Hongkongers resist!” as they set off in the direction of the city center and the main government offices. Police responded with tear gas. The public was urged “stay alert” and “avoid going out.”

Live news streams also showed protesters gathering in the tourist district on the Kowloon peninsula, chanting “Fight for freedom! Stand with Hong Kong!” and singing “Glory to Hong Kong”—the song that many are calling Hong Kong’s “national anthem”—as they processed up the tourist strip of Nathan Road to the northern district of Kowloon Tong. They erected barricades across Waterloo Road—a major thoroughfare through the affluent suburb that was home to martial arts icon Bruce Lee and which has so far not been affected by the protests.

“The government is doing everything it can to restrict our freedom of assembly because it wants to end the protests,” said a protester named Eva, 50, when asked about the mask ban. “I don’t think it will end unless the army marches in,” she told TIME.

Marching alongside, her husband, 67, said that while he did not agree with violence “The youngsters feel they have no choice … the government made them.”

The latest demonstrations come in the wake of the most violent unrest Hong Kong has seen in over 50 years. Protesters rampaged across the city on both Oct. 1—China’s national day—and again on Oct. 4, when the government invoked the colonial-era Emergency Regulations Ordinance to ban the wearing of masks at public gatherings.

Protesters clashed with police and smashed the shopfronts of retailers with mainland Chinese connections. A teenage protester miraculously survived after being shot by police at close range. An undercover police officer who drew his weapon to fire a warning shot but instead hit and wounded another teenage boy was attacked by an enraged mob and narrowly escaped with his life after being momentarily set alight with a petrol bomb. Scores of others were injured and hundreds of arrests were made.

The city’s train network came in for particularly savage assault, with protesters ransacking stations, starting fires, and attacking trains. Extensive damage meant that the entire system was suspended yesterday and only partial services resumed today.

Hong Kong appeared shell-shocked for much of Saturday, with banks, shops, malls, and government facilities shut, runs reported on ATMs, and panic buying breaking out at the few supermarkets that remained open. Protests resumed in the evening at multiple locations.

Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said Saturday that the extent of violence during Hong Kong’s four months of anti-government unrest warranted an independent probe. She called on Hong Kong authorities to launch an “effective, prompt, independent and impartial investigation” into the handling of the protests, which to date have led to more than 1,100 injuries.

Hong Kong’s political crisis was sparked by a now withdrawn extradition bill, which would have allowed the rendition of fugitives to mainland China for the first time. Opposition to the bill quickly grew into a repudiation of both the unrepresentative local government and of Beijing, which has labeled the movement a color rebellion. Many protesters are calling for self-determination or independence for the former British possession—which was retroceded to China in 1997 after 156 years of colonial rule—and appear prepared to escalate their actions.

“I don’t think it’s violence—these are methods to resist the government’s authoritarian power,” said Kelly, 25, when asked about the use of force by radical protesters. “No matter what happens, and what [the radicals do], we wont split.”

—With reporting by Laignee Barron and Aria Chen / Hong Kong