Hong Kong’s rail operator partially reopened the city’s metro system on Sunday after an unprecedented shutdown but kept many typically busy stations closed as the Chinese territory braced for large demonstrations later in the day.
Violent protests erupted across the Asian financial centre on Friday hours after its embattled leader Carrie Lam invoked colonial-era emergency powers, last used more than 50 years ago, to curb months of unrest.
Pro-democracy politicians in Hong Kong have failed in their bid to have a ban on face masks being worn at protests overturned.
The ban, brought in by embattled chief executive Carrie Lam under emergency powers on Friday, has had little effect so far.
Hong Kong’s rail operator MTR Corp said that due to serious vandalism some stations will not be opened for service on Sunday, as damaged facilities needed time for repair. Train service would also be shortened.
Supermarkets and commercial stores which shuttered on Saturday had mostly reopened by Sunday morning.
Many restaurants and small businesses have had to repeatedly shut with the protests taking a growing toll on Hong Kong’s economy as it faces its first recession in a decade.
Two major protests are planned for Sunday afternoon, one on the island and another on the Kowloon Peninsula with many demonstrators expected to defy a ban on face masks
The night’s “extreme violence” justified the use of the emergency law, Beijing-backed Lam said in a television address on Saturday.
The city felt eerily quiet on Saturday with the subway and most shopping malls closed and many roads deserted. Hundreds of anti-government protesters defied a ban on face masks and took to the streets across the city earlier in the day, but by evening they had largely dispersed.
