HK protests: Civil servants at work as numbers dwindle

Government employees returned to work on Monday morning as protesters' numbers dwindled. Hundreds of pro-democracy campaigners remain camped out on the streets of Hong Kong as a government deadline for them to leave passed without incident. But their numbers dwindled overnight and civil servants have returned to work in the government's headquarters. The protesters are angry at China's plans to vet candidates when Hong Kong holds elections in 2017. They are demanding that the central government in Beijing allow a fully free vote for the territory's leader. Tens of thousands of people have been on the streets in the past week, but only about 100 protesters remained at the Admiralty protest site in the Central district on Monday morning, and just ten people were sitting outside the chief executive's office, according to the South China Morning Post. About 200 remain in Mong Kok, north of the harbour, despite earlier calls by organisers for protesters to withdraw from that site, following clashes at the weekend with people opposed to the demonstrations. Overnight, some protesters in Central dismantled barricades and cleared roads so government officials could get in to work. The BBC's John Sudworth in Hong Kong said that the remaining protesters had slept peacefully on Sunday night on mats laid out across the eight-lane highway that runs through the financial district, according to BBC.