The ninth of June 2019 was a Sunday. Any other Sunday in summer at Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, old men and women would do their usual walkabouts and maids would gather, spread out groundsheets, cover them with spicy delicacies and listen to Filipino pop songs. But it was not like any other Sunday, at least not for me. Filled with anxiety, hope and anger, I joined the protest against Hong Kong’s proposed extradition law, alongside three classmates from my evening Spanish class. We were hopeful because perhaps there was a slim chance that our government would listen to us, for once. We were angry because our government had repeatedly lied to us.

Related: What are the Hong Kong protests about?

Major roads blocked and citywide shutdown expected on Wednesday as hundreds of businesses call for a boycott

Tens of thousands of demonstrators have gathered in Hong Kong, blocking major roads and sporadically clashing with police as politicians prepared to debate extradition legislation that critics fear would let China spirit its critics across the border.

Protesters gathered around the legislative council building, dismantling and pushing down barricades set up by police and chanting “retract, retract!” Large numbers of riot police have been deployed, using pepper spray on protesters and holding up signs warning they were prepared to use force on the crowds.

A series of mass protests has shaken the city. We look at the motivations behind them

Hong Kong has been rocked by a series of protests by hundreds of thousands of people in recent weeks, many of which have ended in violent clashes between police and pockets of demonstrators.

The protests were initially focused on a bill that that would make it easier to extradite people to China from the semi-autonomous city. But the authorities’ harsh policing of the protests, coupled with a refusal by Hong Kong’s leader to completely withdraw the bill, mean protesters have returned to the streets time and again.