The House Committee of the Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) has begun its first session to prepare for the resumption of formal meetings since protesters stormed the building in July, while the city's metro operator opened all stations for the first time in a week.

Metro operator MTR Corp, whose network carries about five million passengers a day, said all lines would shut at 10 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Friday, more than two hours earlier than usual.

The president of the LegCo had earlier appealed for peace as the session is scheduled to reopen on October 16 next week. 

"By stopping LegCo to function normally, that would be detrimental to Hong Kong as a whole. So I would appeal to all members of the public, whether your view is different from the government or not, I think, please let LegCo to go on normally," Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen said. 

(Cover: Riot police patrol near the police station in Tsim Sha Tsui district, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, October 10, 2019. /Reuters Photo)