Hong Kong police fire tear gas, baton-charge protesters outside parliament

Hong Kong riot police launched an operation in the early hours of Tuesday morning to seize back the city's parliament after it was stormed by protesters, firing tear gas and baton-charging lines of demonstrators.

Hundreds of officers wearing gas masks and shields, charged demonstrators with their batons drawn, following warnings to the crowds who were camped out near the finance hub's legislature.

Volleys of tear gas sent groups of largely masked, young protesters running into nearby streets, the acrid stench of the smoke wafting through the heart of the international finance hub.

By the time police moved on the city's parliament, the vast majority of protesters who had stormed it hours earlier had already left and officers encountered little resistance retaking a forecourt outside the legislature.

Some then began to venture inside the building which had been ransacked and daubed with graffiti.

Other officers used wire cutters and other tools to remove barricades that demonstrators ...