INTRODUCTION

The mood outside Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Wan Chai remains tense more than an hour after Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor wrapped up her first community dialogue with the public, where 30 speakers posed questions and some berated her over the months-long anti-government protests rocking the city.

A crowd of more than 100 have blocked nearby roads as they chant slogans while waiting for government vehicles to come out of the stadium car park. A source says Lam is still in the complex.

Police have prepared contingency plans, including working out different routes to escort Lam out of the venue, amid earlier online calls for protesters to besiege the stadium. The session is one of Lam’s four major action plans, announced earlier in September, to ease the political turmoil in the city, with 150 people selected at random from more than 20,200 who had applied to take part.

Officials at the session comprised home affairs secretary Lau Kong-wah, commerce minister Edward Yau Tang-wah, health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee and constitutional affairs minister Patrick Nip Tak-kuen.