Pro-democracy demonstrators holed up in a Hong Kong university campus set the main entrance ablaze Monday to prevent surrounding police moving in, after officers warned they may use live rounds if confronted by deadly weapons.
Several loud blasts were heard around dawn on Monday before a wall of fire lit up an entrance to the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), AFP reporters said, as what appeared to be a police attempt to enter the campus was repelled by protesters determined to hold their ground.
The protesters are trying to build a fire barricade at the front entrance to stop the riot police from storming in Polyu. #antielab #hongkongprotests pic.twitter.com/8NJOLRdSkr
— Jessie Pang (@JessiePang0125) November 17, 2019
Police said they had fired three live rounds in the early hours of Monday at a protest site near the university but that no one appeared to have been hit.
Intense clashes throughout Sunday, which saw a police officer hit in the leg by an arrow and protesters meet police tear gas with volleys of petrol bombs, rolled overnight across the Kowloon district, as a call went out to defend the besieged campus.
There, protesters had taken shelter down under umbrellas from fire from police water cannon and hurled Molotov cocktails at an armored vehicle, leaving it ablaze on a flyover near the campus.
香港理工大学の映像。警察の装甲車がキャンパスに突入しようとしたら、抗議者が火炎瓶を投げ、警察を撃退した。車が炎に囲まれて撤退した。https://t.co/1PNbPXK0rs
— Martin Fackler (@martfack) November 17, 2019
Police declared the campus a “riot” scene — rioting is punishable by up to 10 years in jail — and blocked exits as spokesman Louis Lau issued a stark warning in a Facebook live broadcast.
“I hereby warn rioters not to use petrol bombs, arrows, cars, or any deadly weapons to attack police officers,” he said.
“If they continue such dangerous actions, we would have no choice but to use the minimum force necessary, including live rounds, to fire back.”
Three protesters have been shot by police in the unrelenting months of protests, all in scuffles as chaotic street clashes played out — and without a sweeping warning being given by a force that overwhelmingly depends on tear gas, water cannons, and rubber bullets.
Fear gripped protesters still trapped inside the campus, whose occupation was a twist in tactics by a leaderless movement so far defined by its fluid, unpredictable nature.
“I feel scared. There’s no way out. All I can do is fight to the end,” one protester joining the barricade in front of the university building said early Monday.
Owen Li, a PolyU council member and student, said panic had taken hold of the few hundred protesters believed to be holed up.
“Many friends feel helpless… we appeal to all of society to come out and help us.”
Throughout Sunday, activists parried attempts by police to break through into the campus, firing rocks using a homemade catapult from the university roof, while an AFP reporter saw a team of masked archers — several carrying sports bows — patrolling the site.
Hours later and it’s still this at Poly U: volleys of tear gas, water cannon, slingshot. Hong Kong. pic.twitter.com/jWhK7o2ac2
— Tom Lasseter (@TomLasseter) November 17, 2019
Violence has worsened in recent days, with two men killed in separate incidents linked to the protests this month.
Chinese President Xi Jinping this week issued his most strident comments on the crisis, saying it threatened the “one country, two systems” model under which Hong Kong has been ruled since the 1997 handover from Britain.
Demonstrators last week engineered a “Blossom Everywhere” campaign of blockades and vandalism, which forced the police to draft in prison officers as reinforcements, shut down large chunks of Hong Kong’s transport network and closed schools and shopping malls.
As of this morning, protesters were seen trying to flee PolyU as police continued to fire tear gas in an apparent effort to prevent them, RTHK reports.
Attempts to get out of the campus came after a predawn incursion by police, who were reportedly seen making arrests.
Police fire rounds and rounds of tear gas again at every exit they try to leave. The protesters are forced to trap in PolyU. #antielab #hongkongprotests pic.twitter.com/3BJv1QoV0O
— Jessie Pang (@JessiePang0125) November 18, 2019
Additional reporting by Coconuts HK.
