Hong Kong police have moved in on protesters who had barricaded themselves at a university campus in centre of the city and were hurling petrol bombs and debris at officers.
ABC China correspondent Bill Birtles, who is on the ground near Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said “all hell is breaking loose”.
“The police Raptors – the special tactical forces – I saw them race past the no-man’s land through the protest line, and they’re firing a tremendous amount of tear gas,” he told ABC Radio National on Monday morning.
He said protesters pushing push back, including with petrol bombs.
“Police earlier in the night said they may resort to live rounds if protesters continued to throw fire bombs at them, and so this is what everybody is really concerned about,” Birtles said.
The latest clashes follow an incident where a Hong Kong police officer was admitted to hospital after being shot in the leg by an arrow on Sunday.
Police had said earlier they would start firing live bullets if crowds inside the university did not disperse.
A squad of protesters breakaway from the pack to launch a sideswipe at the police vehicles with fire bombs #HK #HongKongProtests #StandWithHongKong pic.twitter.com/ghTHMBKnHa
— James Pomfret (@jamespomfret) November 17, 2019
Footage showed fire bombs hurled by protesters, while photographs showed people – including first aiders – rounded up by police, with their hands tied behind their backs.
A Hong Kong Polytechnic University official said early Monday morning he feared a repeat of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
The defiant pro-democracy activists – who have stockpiled an arsenal of bows and arrows, catapults and petrol bombs – said they would not surrender.
By Sunday night, authorities ordered the roughly 200 protesters to leave the campus as they were “planning for the next round of operation”.
Police also used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons on a resistant crowd wearing raincoats and carrying umbrellas.
But the activistts did not give in, with police creating a cordon around the university to prevent them from escaping.
As riot police moved in from all sides, some protesters retreated inside the university while others set fires on bridges leading to it.
Petrol bombs were hurled at a police vehicle, which burst into flames as it tried to enter the PolyU campus.
A huge blaze burned along much of a footbridge that connects a train station to the campus over the approach to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, a major road under Hong Kong’s harbour that has been blocked by the protesters for days.
Inside Poly U now with a Reuters team. We’ll stay whatever happens. A sense of foreboding amid grave fears of a bloody showdown, hundreds of tenacious and desperate protesters trapped on all sides by police, some highly on edge #HK #HongKongProtests #StandWithHongKong
— James Pomfret (@jamespomfret) November 17, 2019
Describing the protesters as “rioters who have lost their rational minds”, Junior Police Officers’ Association chair Lam Chi-wai said officers’ lives had been threatened by “deadly weapons”.
“When a rioter raises a petrol bomb to prepare to throw it, police officers on scene may very likely see it as a deadly attack upon them or others, and use relevant force or a weapon to stop it, including live ammunition,” Mr Lam said.
In a live Facebook broadcast, police spokesman Louis Lau officially warned the demonstrators.
“Stop using petrol bombs, arrows, vehicles or any other lethal weapons to attack police officers, and stop all acts of assault,” he said.
“If they continue these dangerous acts, we will have no choice but to use the necessary minimal force, including live ammunition, to hit back.”
【警方快訊 · 直播】就有關香港理工大學的最新情況，警司劉肇邦現作出簡報。Superintendent Louis Lau Siu-pong is now giving a briefing regarding the latest situation of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Posted by 香港警察 Hong Kong Police on Sunday, November 17, 2019
Polytechnic University said “dangerous chemicals” were stolen from laboratories and the campus had been “been widely damaged.” by protesters’ “illegal acts and violence”.
“We understand that students care about the current social situation, however, they must be calm and rational when fighting for anything,” the university said in a statement.
“Resorting to violence or other radical acts will not help solve the problem.”
PolyU Governing Council's student member Owan Li told reporters – holding back tears – that he feared a repeat of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre in his own university, and called on alumni to help the students inside.
Photo: Apple Daily screenshot. #hongkong pic.twitter.com/UfckazpLyt
— Hong Kong Free Press (@HongKongFP) November 17, 2019
Riot police shot volleys of tear gas at protesters, who sheltered behind a wall of umbrellas and threw petrol bombs into nearby bushes and trees, setting them on fire.
The demonstrators held their ground for most of Sunday, as water cannon trucks drove over bricks and nails strewn on the ground to spray them at close range – some with water dyed blue to help police identify perpetrators afterward.
Protesters began retreating into the university near sunset, fearing they would be trapped as police fired tear gas volleys and approached from other directions.
The protesters involved in the campus standoff are the holdouts from larger groups that occupied several major campuses for much of last week.
Another group threw bricks in the street to block a main thoroughfare in the Mongkok district, as police fired tear gas to disperse them.
-with agencies
