Legco copyright protest: 600 police spent quiet day in Tamar Park, outnumbering protesters

The story in brief:

• Police find 1kg of explosive ingredient on man walking towards rally (read more here)
• About 300 protesters attended the Legislative Council demonstration area
• Inside Legco, the Copyright Amendment Bill’s second reading speech was blocked again with an organised filibuster
• Protesters have said they will reappear at the Tamar Park complex again on Thursday from 4pm if the bill is debated again
• 600 police outnumbered the protesters two to one, but mostly at a higher ratio

Pan-democrats have called for a quorum more than 10 times, using measures to delay the passage of amendments to copyright in Hong Kong.

The filibustering looks to have successfully stopped the bill’s passage as the Legislative Council is due to rise at 8pm and the discussion has not occurred.

READ MORE: Hong Kong copyright bill explained: Why are people so concerned about this?

In preparations for today’s protest outside the Tamar Park complex, about 600 police officers, said to have been drawn from the elite tactical unit were deployed outside Legco as opponents of the controversial copyright bill prepared to rally in protest.

WATCH: Protesters chant “Support protesters” and “Fight for our next generation”

But the protest has also been slow to start, with just a handful of protesters from both sides attending the event. Organisers expected up to 10,000 but have revised their figure down to 1,000.

Protest starts at 7pm

As protesters vowed to return to the Tamar Park complex on Thursday at 4pm if the Legco continues to debate the copyright bill, the gathered crowd has become feisty.

About 300 people have turned out to hear from lawmakers on both sides of the debate.

Chaos broke out as the Democratic Party’s Emily Lau and Wong Pik-wan were mobbed by the angry crowd.

Protestors accused the Democratic Party of betraying the interests of the public when it did not participate in the copyright bill filibuster.