Protests and strikes lead to fifth consecutive day of rioting on Hong Kong's streets
Video report by ITV News Senior International Correspondent John Irvine
Hong Kong's embattled chief executive has reaffirmed she will not stand down from leadership of the semi-autonomous region's government.
Carrie Lam made the comments during a press conference amid the fifth consecutive day of rioting.
"I don't think at this point in time resignation of myself, or some of my colleagues, will provide a better solution," the Beijing approved leader told ITV News during the briefing.
City in chaos as protesters engage in strikes and create gridlock
In a day of mass strikes, Hongkongers shut down the metropolis' public transport network.
Using umbrellas, a symbol of this ever intensifying revolution, they blocked doors of the MTR - the city's equivalent of the tube network.
On the platforms the protesters weren't greeted with anger, but hugs.
A station manager at one MTR station was pictured embracing the very people who were preventing trains from leaving his platforms.
The embrace is symbolic of the way many in this normally law-abiding region feel about the demonstrations.
Beijing's ever tightening grip on the former British colony has seen thousands march in the streets, taking on police as their new enemy.
Read more: Hong Kong protesters clash with police in ninth weekend of demonstrations
Monday's strike was wide reaching, with 200 flights cancelled from Hong Kong International Airport - the planet's eighth busiest runway.
Cathay Pacific, the territory's flag carrier, was forced to scrap 150 flights alone.
Protesters set up barricades across the city's normally busy road network, swimming guards at popular beaches left their posts unmanned and the Disney resort in the west of the territory was pictured virtually deserted.
Police attempted to quell the protests; but as soon as they dispersed crowds, new ones would appear in another part of the city.
Protesters are adamant they'll win in this escalating game of high stakes cat and mouse.
Mass arrests in Hong Kong as protests stay out late in to the night
Beijing-backed authorities have been accused of heavy-handed tactics, but show no sign of cooling.
Tear gas was fired in five districts of Hong Kong, but protesters remained defiant to police orders and held their positions on the streets until late into the night.
Eighty-two people were arrested for their roles in the city-wide grid lock. But masses remain undeterred by the detentions.
Local media reports indicate well into the early hours of Tuesday morning violent clashes took place in the Mong Kok area of the city - the site of Saturday's protest which saw Hong Kong's Nathan Road shopping village mostly shuttered.
In Tai Po, a dual industrial residential district of the territory, around half an hour from its core, around 300 people gathered outside a police station, watched by riot armed officers.
It was a similar story in Sha Tin, normally busy with tourists visiting the mountainside temples, instead a blaze roared outside the area's police station.
In other areas of the city, protesters set booby traps by attaching cling flim to traffic lights in a bid to stop charging officers, local media reported.
Beijing announcement on Hong Kong imminent
Mainland China's government is set to make an announcement on the protests on Tuesday.
The statement is an almost unprecedented move from the communist regime.
Since the Sino-British agreement on the handover of power to China in 1997, Beijing has only once officially spoken about Hong Kong.
That last statement came just last week.
It has warned the protesters now risk pushing relations with mainland China off a cliff edge, as the demonstrations reach their most dangerous phase.
China is not afraid to show its might - publicly backing armed forces in the territory.
Sources within the government told the South China Morning Post it would announce "something new", but ultimately it is thought its strategy on the city remains unchanged.