A Scottish businessman has told how he became trapped in a Hong Kong hotel as violent political riots gripped the city yesterday.
Fragrance boss Jamie McGowan, from the Isle of Harris, was set to travel home to Scotland but feared he would not reach the airport as police used tear gas on thousands of protesters outside.
He told the Record how he watched protesters digging up pavement blocks to use as weapons as demonstrations entered a 17th week in the Chinese-ruled city.
Mr McGowan, director and co-founder of candle and home fragrance firm Essence of Harris, remained inside the JW Marriot Hotel where he watched the violence unfold outside.
He said: “There are thousands of them and I can see tear gas is being thrown.
“Protesters are digging up the monoblocks in the street and putting them in a container to use as weapons.
“I’ve been travelling and visiting Shenzhen. I’m supposed to be coming home today but the roads are all closed and I’m not sure if going to be able to get out to the airport.”
A wave of anti-Government protests sparked by a controversial extradition bill with China has gripped Honk Kong since June with the situation becoming increasingly volatile.
Yesterday’s protest had been scheduled to start at 3pm in the Causeway Bay shopping district but dozens of riot police arrived hours before and began searching a number of people dressed in black before firing several rounds of teargas at crowds.
Police later fired more gas at protesters outside an upmarket shopping centre in Admiralty, not far from the government headquarters, as helicopters hovered above the crowds.
Water cannons firing controversial blue dye and rubber bullets were earlier reported to have been used on protesters, as images of a petrol bomb fire also emerged.
Protesters shouted anti-China slogans and called for their “five demands, not one less” of the government, including universal suffrage and the dropping of all charges against those arrested in the riots.
Although the extradition bill that sparked the initial wave of protests has since been axed by the Hong Kong governement, it’s feared that tensions will reach their peak at the 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule in China on 1 October.
