A peaceful New Year’s Day rally ended in multiple arrests, rounds of teargas and furious standoffs between the public and the police in central Hong Kong on Wednesday evening after the authorities abruptly withdrew permission for the event while hundreds of thousands were already marching.

The pro-democracy protest, which activists claim drew more than one million, was attended by families, old people, and students to demand more rights and concessions from the embattled government as the seven-month protest in the Chinese-ruled financial hub spilled into 2020.

The atmosphere on the police-approved march was calm until angry scenes flared up between protesters and riot officers when the windows of a downtown HSBC branch were smashed, and the police responded with pepper spray, arresting five.

HSBC has become the target of protesters’ ire after closing the bank account of a group that was offering financial assistance to the pro-democracy movement. The city’s largest bank defended the decision as being in accordance with international regulatory standards and condemned the New Year’s violence.