A sea of democracy activists flooded the streets of Hong Kong Sunday in a defiant show to the city's leaders that their movement still pulls wide public support, despite mounting violence and increasingly stark warnings from Beijing. Hundreds of thousands of protesters carrying umbrellas poured across the heart of Hong Kong island defying torrential rain and a police order not to march from a park where they had gathered earlier for a rally.

Weeks of demonstrations have plunged the financial hub into crisis, with images of masked black-clad protesters engulfed by tear gas during street battles against riot police stunning a city once renowned for its stability. Sunday's action, which organisers the Civil Human Rights Front said drew more than 1.7 million in the largest rally in weeks, was billed as a return to the "peaceful" origins of the leaderless protest movement.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019