Hong Kong campus holdouts desperately seek escape routes

About 100 protesters still trapped, some growing tired and fearful of police action

Left: Police detaining protesters trying to flee The Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus yesterday. Right: Protesters waiting to receive medical attention after leaving the campus yesterday. The city's Hospital Authority said 235 injured were tak
Police detaining protesters trying to flee The Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus yesterday. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Left: Police detaining protesters trying to flee The Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus yesterday. Right: Protesters waiting to receive medical attention after leaving the campus yesterday. The city's Hospital Authority said 235 injured were tak
Protesters waiting to receive medical attention after leaving the campus yesterday. The city's Hospital Authority said 235 injured were taken to hospital. PHOTO: REUTERS
Left: Police detaining protesters trying to flee The Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus yesterday. Right: Protesters waiting to receive medical attention after leaving the campus yesterday. The city's Hospital Authority said 235 injured were tak
Chief Executive Carrie Lam.

HONG KONG • Anti-government protesters holed up in a Hong Kong university were frantically searching for escape routes yesterday after more than two days of clashes with police, dramatic breakouts by rope and motorcycles, and more than 1,000 arrests in 24 hours.

About 100 protesters were trapped in The Hong Kong Polytechnic University a day after students - some tired and fearful of police storming the campus - tried again and again to flee, only to be beaten back by police firing rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas.

The city's Hospital Authority said 235 injured were taken to hospital yesterday.

"I just want to leave. I feel very tired," said Thomas, 20, a student from another university who has been on the campus since the siege began. "I didn't throw Molotovs. I was here to support the protest. I don't see anything wrong with it so I wanted to support the students."

Late yesterday evening, a small group tried to make a run for it through the main gate. Most, if not all, ended up running back into the campus as police shouted at them and flashed their torches rather than firing.

The police have made more than 1,100 arrests in the past 24 hours on charges such as rioting and possession of offensive weapons, they said. The total arrested since June stands at more than 5,000.

Meanwhile, more than 3,900 petrol bombs were found at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said she hoped the stand-off could be resolved and that she had told the police to handle it humanely.

Mrs Lam spoke shortly after the city's new police chief urged the support of all citizens to end more than five months of unrest triggered by fears that China's central government is stifling the city's special autonomy and freedoms, including its independent judiciary.

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China says it is committed to the "one country, two systems" formula, under which Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, and has accused foreign countries of inciting trouble.

The unrest poses the gravest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012.

Hundreds of protesters fled from the Polytechnic University or surrendered overnight and on Monday amid running battles on nearby streets where protesters threw petrol bombs and rocks at police.

Some made it out by rope and motorcycles. "Some rioters were seen escaping by abseiling off a footbridge to getaway vehicles below," the police said in a statement. "Our officers gave chase and were able to interrupt 37 of them, including the drivers."

About a dozen tried and failed to flee through the university's sewers. A Reuters witness saw them lower themselves into a tunnel wearing gas masks and plastic sheets, but the tunnel was too narrow.

On the sprawling campus in the Kowloon district, despair prevailed amid the shriek of fire alarms.

"I feel I'm in trouble," said a 22-year-old who gave his name as Marcus. "We keep trying to think how to escape, but every time we pick a spot, we see many police nearby. But if we give up, we're finished."

In the campus central square, a giant "SOS" call for help was spelt out in pink, blue and yellow bath towels.

The university is the last of five that protesters occupied to use as bases from which to disrupt the city, blocking the Cross-Harbour Tunnel outside and other main roads.

In what many will see as an illustration of Beijing's tightening grip, China's legislature yesterday questioned the legality of a Hong Kong court ruling on Monday that a ban on face masks worn by protesters was unlawful.

The National People's Congress said Hong Kong courts had no power to rule on the constitutionality of city legislation, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The Hong Kong Bar Association, which represents barristers, said the comments undermined "the high degree of autonomy granted to (Hong Kong) under the Basic Law", the mini-Constitution that sets the ground rules for Hong Kong after its return to Chinese rule.

Mrs Lam said her government was very much on the "reactive side" in dealing with the protests, but she did not rule out more violence, even as she urged peace.

She added that she was shocked that campuses had been turned into "weapons factories".

She also said 600 protesters had left the campus, including 200 who are below the age of 18.

Many protesters say they fear more bloodshed in a stand-off that has seen some of the most intense violence, in the worst crisis since Hong Kong's return from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

The United Nations human rights office said some demonstrators resorting to extreme violence, including against the police, was "deeply regrettable and cannot be condoned".

Meanwhile, political group Demosisto said the city's High Court refused to allow its leader Joshua Wong to leave Hong Kong for Europe, claiming he may abscond.

Wong is currently out on bail after being charged with organising an illegal assembly on June 21, as well as taking part in the protest and inciting others to do so.

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on November 20, 2019, with the headline Hong Kong campus holdouts desperately seek escape routes. Subscribe