Police on Monday rejected an application for an annual candlelight vigil marking the anniversary this week of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. It would be the first time in 30 years that the candlelight vigil is not held in Hong Kong.

The vigil marks the deadly military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. The police, in a letter to organisers, said it would violate coronavirus physical distancing rules that ban gatherings of more than eight people.