Tens of thousands of people poured into Hong Kong's Victoria Park on Thursday for a solemn commemoration of the 26th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, where Chinese authorities killed pro-democracy student activists in 1989.
Those who gathered held candles to mark the government crackdown in Beijing that left hundreds of unarmed protesters and bystanders dead in the early morning hours of June 4, 1989. Aerial footage, above, shows the scale of Thursday's vigil.
Hong Kong, the only city in China holding a large-scale public commemoration, was the scene of its own pro-democracy protests by students last fall. The semi-autonomous island marked Thursday's anniversary just two weeks ahead of a vote on a Beijing-proposed plan for how to elect a new leader, the issue at the root of student demonstrations.
Additional reporting by The Association Press