Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says China extradition bill that sparked mass protests 'dead'

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has backed down on the extradition bill that fuelled the territory's biggest political crisis in decades.

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's chief executive, says the extradition bill 'is dead'. Source: Getty

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has said the extradition bill that sparked the territory's biggest political crisis in decades was dead, admitting that the government's work on the bill had been a "total failure".

The bill, which would have allowed people in Hong Kong to be sent to mainland China to face trial, sparked huge and at times violent street protests and plunged the former British colony into turmoil.

A protester displays a photo of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam in front of a row of riot police near the Legislative Council in Hong Kong. Source: AAP

In mid-June, Lam responded to huge protests by suspending the bill, but that move failed to mollify critics, who continued to demonstrate against the bill and call for Lam's resignation.

Hong Kong was returned to China from Britain in 1997.