Hong Kong residents gather for possibly last night of protests

There were no clashes late Wednesday night as up to 10,000 people gathered in Hong Kong to see what could be the last night of protests there.

Officials had urged people to stay away from the Admiralty government and financial district, which would be cleared by police on a court injunction on Thursday morning.

Around 10,000 people gathered in what is expected to be the end of the 10-week Occupy Central movement, whose supporters demand free and fair 2017 elections for the semi-autonomous region, without interference from mainland China.

"I want real universal suffrage," some chanted. Others left messages in chalk on the asphalt that read, "We will be back."

Demonstrators had been blocking the main thoroughfare around government offices for 75 days.

"We will organize greater events in the future to show we will not just admit defeat," said Nathan Law of the Hong Kong Federation of Students.

"Even if authorities control our fate now, one day we will control their fate," said Joshua Wong, the 18-year-old founder of Hong Kong student activist group.

Court injunction

The injunction had been requested by a bus company, which said its business was suffering because the protesters' camp was blocking traffic. It was issued on December 9 and allows bailiffs to "request the assistance of police" to clear a protest zone near government headquarters.

Bus company lawyer Paul Tse told reporters that the injunction would be enforced from 9 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Thursday.

"What I would like to do now is to perhaps make a public plea to the students to stay away from the scene when there is plenty of time," he told reporters.

According to the South China Post newspaper, some 3,000 police officers were to be deployed for the operation.

A protest site in the working class Mong Kok neighborhood was closed by authorities last month under a different court order. The police operation surrounding that clearance met with resistance that resulted in about 160 arrests.

There were expectations that a third protest site in the Causeway Bay district would also be dismantled on Thursday.

Largely peaceful protests

Since late September, Hong Kong has been disrupted by demonstrations in the city, aimed at pressuring the Beijing government to allow open nominations in leadership elections scheduled for 2017 in the former British colony.

At their height, the rallies drew tens of thousands of people, but numbers have dwindled to just hundreds in recent weeks. Police have cleared three protest sites in the city, but two camps remain in its center.

The Beijing government has refused to change its stance, after announcing in late August that candidates for the 2017 leadership elections will first have to be vetted by a loyalist committee.

Britain handed Hong Kong back to the Chinese government in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" scheme that allows Hong Kong a degree of autonomy from the mainland and envisages eventual "universal suffrage."

sb/ksb (Reuters, dpa)