Hong Kong rallies around Apple Daily after arrest of founder Jimmy Lai

Newspaper prints 500,000 copies, up from 100,000, as readers queue for hours to buy pro-democracy tabloid

Hong Kong residents have rallied behind the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily after its founder Jimmy Lai was detained under a controversial national security law being used to crack down on dissent.

Residents lined up around 2am on Tuesday, hours after the daily tabloid's offices were raided by police following Lai's arrest, to buy copies of the paper in a show of support. Many purchased the paper in bulk, leaving notes in convenience stores urging others to take a copy. Others left stacks of the paper on stairs or in their apartment compounds. One reader wrote to the paper: Even if Apple Daily only publishes a bundle of blank sheets, we will be buying all of them."