HONG KONG: Hong Kong demonstrators Tuesday rejected demands immediately to end rallies that have paralyzed the city’s downtown, their numbers swelling for a third night before a national holiday expected to put their campaign for free elections into overdrive.

Protest leaders are confident they can muster massive crowds overnight and into Wednesday.

Protesters rejected a call from the city’s embattled leader to end the sit-in.

A heavy downpour briefly sent umbrellas skyward and crowds scurrying, but the prospect of bad weather left the crowds undeterred.

“We have spent more than a week under the sun. Nothing can stop us,” a recent university student who identified himself as Choi told AFP.

In his first public comments since demonstrators were tear-gassed by riot police on Sunday evening, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said the pro-democracy sit-in organized partly by the Occupy Central group was now “out of control.”

“Occupy Central founders had said repeatedly that if the movement is getting out of control, they would call for it to stop. I’m now asking them to fulfil the promise they made to society, and stop this campaign immediately,” he said.