Hong Kong cancels all flights as protesters invaded airport

After two months of demonstrations, Hong Kong protesters stormed the main terminal of Hong Kong airport forcing authorities to cancel all flights.

Airport operations at Hong Kong International Airport have been seriously disrupted … all flights have been canceled,” the city’s airport authority said in a statement. “All passengers are advised to leave the terminal buildings as soon as possible.

The protesters who are calling for democratic reforms and a probe into alleged police brutality also blocked trains and platform doors to prevent trains from leaving stations.

Why do they have to create trouble for people not involved in their cause?” said John Chan, whose flight to Singapore was canceled. “Hong Kong is sinking. The government, police and protest people have to stop fighting and give us a break.

A spokesman for the Chinese government’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office told newsmen on Monday that the situation in the former British colony was “beginning to show the sprouts of terrorism” and constituted an “existential threat” to the population of Hong Kong.

“One must take resolute action toward this violent criminality, showing no leniency or mercy,” spokesman Yang Guang said in a statement

He added,

“Hong Kong has reached an inflection point where all those who are concerned about Hong Kong’s future must say ‘no,’ to lawbreakers and ‘no’ to those engaged in violence”.

The protests are the greatest political threat to the territory, which Britain returned to China on July 1, 1997, and one of the biggest popular challenges to Chinese leader Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012.