7 taken away as police ramp up patrols around former site of Tiananmen vigil

Hong Kong police took away seven people who appeared in Causeway Bay on Thursday evening carrying flowers and dressed in black to mark the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

They included Chan Po-ying, former chairwoman of the now-defunct League of Social Democrats opposition group, and activist Virginia Fung King-man.

Police said they stopped and searched five men and two women, aged between 17 and 79, for allegedly disrupting order in the area around Great George Street and East Point Road. They were removed from the scene for further investigation and later allowed to leave, the force added.

Police said they would deploy appropriate measures in response to threats to national security and public safety and order.

For about three decades, Victoria Park in Causeway Bay hosted an annual candlelight vigil to commemorate the June 4, 1989, crackdown in Beijing. The event drew tens of thousands of people each year until it was banned on public health grounds in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Thursday evening, a heavy police presence blanketed the popular shopping district, with officers patrolling entrances to the MTR station and areas around the park.