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Spidey appears in Hong Kong
03/06/2005 13:35 - (SA)
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| Matt Pierce, an activist who called for justice for the victims killed in Tiananmen Square, is taken to the Hong Kong police station. (Vincent Yu, AP) |
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Hong Kong - A man dressed like Spider-Man climbed atop a giant TV screen in downtown Hong Kong on Friday and unfurled a huge banner protesting China's bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democracy protests on June 4 1989.
The hour-long protest - a day before the 16th anniversary of the crackdown - blocked traffic on the busy street in front of the screen, which broadcasts news programmes and advertisements.
A large crowd gathered to look at the yellow banner, which read, "Tiananmen Square 4.6.1989 Justice Must Prevail."
A group of foreign residents called International Action organised the protest.
"Being foreigners who live in Hong Kong, we feel that the international community has a responsibility to call for justice for what happened on the 4th of June 1989," the group said in a statement.
Adrian Smith, a member of the activist group, said that the protester was English-language tutor Matt Pearce, of Britain.
Smith said that Pearce was arrested, but had yet to be charged.
Police could not immediately be reached for comment.
The protester was dressed as a worker and wore a yellow hardhat when he scaled the TV screen. After he unfurled the banner, he stripped off his worker's clothes and appeared dressed as comic book and Hollywood superhero Spider-Man.
As a fire truck arrived to bring him down, he sat on the sign and read a newspaper, chatted on a cell phone and ate take-out Chinese food. Firefighters inflated a huge cushion in the street to protect the protester if he fell.
After an hour, he signalled that he was ready to come down and firefighters retrieved him using a ladder from a truck.
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