Hong Kong airport resumes flights after clashes and mass protests

Hong Kong’s airport resumed operations onWednesday, rescheduling hundreds of flightsthat had been disrupted over the past two daysas protesters clashed with riot police in a deepening crisis in the Chinese-controlled city.

Ten weeks of increasingly violent clashesbetween police and pro-democracy protesters,angered by a perceived erosion of freedoms,have plunged the Asian financial hubinto its worst crisis since it reverted fromBritish to Chinese rule in 1997.

About 30 protesters remained at the airportearly on Wednesday while workers scrubbed itclean of blood and debris from overnight.

Check-in counters reopened to queues of hundredsof weary travellers who had waitedovernight for their flights. Police condemnedviolent acts by protesters overnight and saidon Wednesday a large group had “harassed andassaulted a visitor and a journalist”.