China and HK tourists hold protests at KL airport to demand flights home after Typhoon Hato

The arrival of Typhoon Hato had earlier led to a mass cancellation and rescheduling of flights in and out of Hong Kong, Macau as well as Shenzhen.

The Straits Times reported that while some travellers were understanding about the situation, others were left disgruntled and shared their frustrations with the media.

According to The Star, a group of tourists from Hong Kong and China had gone as far as to stage a demonstration at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) after their Aug 23 flight was cancelled.

A 23-year-old student, who was among the 200 stranded tourists at the airport, said that Hong Kong's flag carrier Cathay Pacific had offered them a replacement flight on Aug 27.

However, most of them had to return immediately for work or school.

At around 6pm, the group went to Cathay Pacific's check-in counter and began chanting in Mandarin, "We want to go home".

A woman said their tour leader had been liaising with airline officials since their arrival at 8am.

"They offered to let us travel in small groups on different flights, but we want to go back together in a group," she added.

Several policemen subsequently arrived at the scene to monitor the situation, but no action was taken against the tourists.