A graffiti reading ‘Free Hong Kong’ appears on The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark, 13 January 2020.
The mermaid overlooking the waters at the port of Copenhagen is particularly popular with Chinese tourists.
In 2010, The 175kg (385lb) bronze statue was part of Denmark’s pavilion at the World Exhibition in Shanghai.
Hong Kong has been gripped by months of protests demanding more democracy and less control from Beijing.
Created in tribute to the Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen, the mermaid has overlooked the entrance of the Copenhagen harbour since 1913 and over time has become a world-famous icon of the city but has been decapitated, covered in graffiti and banned from Facebook over nudity over the years.
