Two activists from Hong Kong wanted on rioting charges after an all-night clash between protesters and police in 2016 have been granted refugee status in Europe.

The pair, Ray Wong, 25, and Alan Li, 27, jumped bail and disappeared in 2017, neither surfacing in public. But now, they have emerged to say they are under protection in Germany, among the first individuals from the former British colony to have received asylum abroad.

Mr Wong and Mr Li are thought to be the first individuals to be granted such status in a foreign country.

The development could reflect an important shift in how Hong Kong is perceived by the international community. Hong Kong has long enjoyed freedoms and autonomy, including an independent judiciary, under an agreement when the city was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 that was meant to last five decades.

But in recent years, activists, lawyers and even the business community have sounded the alarm over eroding freedoms in the Chinese territory.