Giant pro-democracy banner draped on Hong Kong hillside

Giant pro-democracy banner draped on Hong Kong hillside to mark second anniversary of Occupy movement

Six-metre banner on Devil’s Peak in Lei Yue Mun taken down 90 minutes after police notified

A giant pro-democracy banner was draped on Devil’s Peak in Lei Yue Mun on the second anniversary of the Occupy movement.

The 6m-long yellow banner, bearing the familiar Hong Kong slogan “I want real universal suffrage”, was hung on the hillside opposite Lei Ye House in Lei Yue Mun estate.

League of Social Democrats member Tsang Kin-shing said his group placed the banner there early Wednesday morning.

“We don’t want people to forget about the cause,” he said.

Hanging pro-democracy banners on mountains around the city first began during the Occupy movement in 2014.

The Occupy movement was a 79-day street protest for amore open election system for Hong Kong’s chief executive next year.

A police spokesman said the force received a report of the banner on Devil’s Peak at around 9am Wednesday. A fire services spokesman said it was removed around 90 minutes later.

Around 40 civic organisations and political parties have planned to gather outside government headquarters on Wednesday evening to commemorate the second anniversary of the protest.

They plan to gather at 5:58pm, which was the precise timeriot police fired the first round of tear gas at protesters two years ago.

Around a month after the Occupy protests began, a group of climbers called the Hong Kong Spidie – after comic book hero Spiderman – hung a huge yellow banner with the pro-democracy slogan written on it from the highest point of Lion Rock, a mountain in the city.

In May this year, police camped atop the iconic mountainahead of state leader Zhang Dejiang’s visit to prevent such acts.

But during Zhang’s visit, the League of Social Democratsstill managed to hang pro-democracy banners on a hill nearby.