Dozens of Hong Kong citizens who gathered outside the city’s British consulate to watch the Queen’s funeral on Monday evening used the event to display rare public defiance against local authorities.

More than 100 people were outside the building to watch the event on a live stream, despite the British consulate not holding any public events for the funeral.

At one point, a number of attendees sang the de facto anthem of the 2019 pro-democracy protests, “Glory to Hong Kong”, some phrases of which are now deemed in possible violation of the territory’s sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing.

They also chanted “Hong Kongers, add oil”, which was one of the popular protest slogans during the 2019 demonstrations. Police took away a man who played a harmonica version of “Glory to Hong Kong” but there was no confirmation that he had been arrested.

Such public displays of protest songs and slogans are rarely seen in the city after many were arrested for offences under the security law, introduced in the wake of the protests.

Also on Monday, police brought charges of obstructing a police officer against the head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, just days before his planned trip to the UK for a journalism fellowship.

Ronson Chan, a deputy assignment editor at online media outlet Channel C HK, was arrested nearly two weeks ago while covering a news event. The journalists’ association has been labelled as “anti-China” by pro-Beijing figures.