Hong Kong is plunged into fresh chaos as a general strike followed another weekend of violent protests, paralysing transport, leading to more than 200 flight cancellations and bringing the city to an unprecedented standstill.

Defiant pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong are readying for another big rally, a day after police fires rubber bullets and tear gas in the latest violent confrontation that has plunged the financial hub deeper into crisis.

The extradition bill that sparked Hong Kong's biggest crisis in decades is dead, the territory's leader says adding that the government's work on the legislation had been a "total failure", but critics accused her of playing with words.

Hong Kong's leader has condemned "the extreme use of violence" by masked protesters who stormed and ransacked the city's legislature in an unprecedented challenge to Beijing's authority.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam apologises again day and says she had heard the people "loud and clear" after some of the most violent protests in the Chinese-ruled city against an extradition bill that she promoted and then postponed.