Trains to HK airport suspended after violent protests

HONG KONG, Sept 01 (AP): Train service to Hong Kong's airport was suspended Sunday as pro-democracy demonstrators gathered there, while protesters outside the British Consulate called on London to grant citizenship to people born in the former colony before its return to China.

Hong Kong has been the scene of increasingly tense anti-government protests for nearly three months. They began in response to a proposed extradition law and have expanded to include other grievances and demands for more democracy and the resignation of the territory's leader.

On Saturday, protesters threw gasoline bombs at government headquarters. Police stormed a subway car and hit passengers with clubs and pepper spray.

On Sunday, several hundred protesters gathered at the airport on Chek Lap Kok island in the early afternoon and set up temporary barricades at a bus terminal. A dozen blue-uniformed police officers in riot helmets formed a line across an entrance corridor to keep them out of the terminal.

The operator of the express train to the airport from downtown Hong Kong said service was suspended. MTR Corp. said trains into the city from the airport were still running.

Police issued a statement warning protesters were violating a court injunction against disrupting airport operations.

The protesters were mostly peaceful, but a government statement said some threw objects at police and airport employees. A separate statement said iron poles, bricks and rocks were thrown onto tracks of the airport train, "seriously obstructing" service.