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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Michael Safi (now) Naaman Zhou Kate Lyons and Sarah Marsh (earlier)

Hong Kong protesters try to advance on besieged university campus – as it happened

Tonight in Hong Kong

It’s approaching midnight in Hong Kong and we’re ending our live coverage, but will continue updating our news story as events unfold on one of the most dramatic days since mass protests broke out in the city more than five months ago.

Here is where things stand:

  • Hundreds of activists remain besieged inside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), the site of intense clashes today between protesters – many trying to flee the campus after nearly a week inside – and the police determined to keep them holed up.
  • Protesters have tried to rush the police cordons outside the university in an attempt to break the siege. Human chains have kept the crowds supplied with water, umbrellas and helmets as they have tried repeatedly to crack the police lines. Some are hurling petrol bombs, while police are returning fire with rubber bullets, teargas and water cannon.
  • Hong Kong authorities have said the Red Cross is inside the campus and that those requiring hospitalisation will be permitted to leave.
  • As for the rest of the activists: “Other than coming out to surrender, I don’t see, at the moment, there is a viable option for them,” said Cheuk Hau-yip, regional commander of Kowloon West, in a press conference this evening. Those who are arrested risk being charged with rioting, which carries a maximum 10-year jail sentence.
  • Parents of some of those trapped inside PolyU (who include about 100 secondary school students) are sitting down in front of the police cordon blocking access to the campus holding signs that read, “Save Our Kids”.
  • Protesters are clashing with law enforcement in other parts of the city, partly as a tactic to draw police resources away from the blockaded university, giving activists there a chance to escape. Activists claim some students have managed to get out of the campus through an unguarded path. Footage shows some have escaped by rappelling down a footbridge and being whisked away by waiting motorcycles. It is unclear how many managed to get away safely.
  • Administrators have warned the continued unrest might mean the postponement of district council elections scheduled for Sunday. That could further stoke the protesters, who see the polls as one of the few institutional mechanisms to voice their grievances and influence Hong Kong politics.
  • Earlier today, protesters won a legal victory with the high court finding a law against wearing masks in public was unconstitutional. Police say they have already stopped enforcing that controversial law.

Updated

China’s ambassador to Britain, Liu Xiaoming, spoke to the media today at the country’s embassy in London. Patrick Wintour was there and filed this report.

The Chinese ambassador to London has accused Britain of being two-faced in its approach to Hong Kong – pretending to be even-handed in the face of the violent demonstrations, but in reality supporting the demands of the protesters.

He also said UK politicians, including the foreign affairs select committee, were fanning the flames of unrest by referring to violent demonstrators as pro-democracy protesters.

The ambassador, Liu Xiaoming, at his third press conference on the Hong Kong crisis, said: “We have made our position known to the British side when they have made irresponsible remarks on Hong Kong. I think when the British government criticise Hong Kong police, criticise the Hong Kong government in handling the situation, they are interfering into China’s internal affairs. They look like they are balanced but as a matter of fact they are taking sides. That is our position.”

China’s ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming, speaks to members of the media at the Chinese embassy in London
China’s ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming, speaks to members of the media at the Chinese embassy in London. Photograph: Niklas Halle’n/AFP via Getty Images

Updated

We noted reports below of activists trying to escape the siege of Hong Kong Polytechnic University by abseiling down a footbridge. Footage has now been posted online. The reporter Michael Zhang says he saw up to 50 protesters escape this way, jumping on motorcycles waiting below, until police moved in with teargas and closed the route.

Updated

Seze Li, 26, a protester who is in PolyU, said protesters have been hiding in buildings throughout the campus, in offices and small spaces where they can barricade themselves in.

“It’s a disaster,” she says. “Everyone is running around, looking for exits. We heard the protesters [trying to break the police siege] are coming. We are just waiting for them.”

Some have escaped by climbing out of the building. “But not everyone can do that,” she says. “[The mood] is not just angry. It’s anxious and frightened. We are isolated here and people are afraid. We don’t know when the police will strike inside.”

Li said protesters have been watching the live streams and communicating with people outside trying to reach them, including their families. Now they have started to rally the protesters who have been hiding so they can prepare to join the protesters trying to reach the campus.

“Inside we are gathering protesters .… we are separated, hidden in offices and small rooms, just blocking ourselves in to hide from police. We are trying to find them all and say we will fight, and we will just walk outside.”

Updated

Protesters advance on besieged campus

Even by the standards of the five-month protest movement that has roiled Hong Kong, the scenes unfolding on the streets of the city this evening are remarkable.

Protesters are pouring into the streets and streaming towards the cordons established by police around Hong Kong Polytechnic University, attempting to free the thousands of activists who are trapped inside the campus.

The crowds appear to be coming from three sides surrounding the besieged university and are being met by teargas, rubber bullets, and cannons firing water mixed with blue dye – to stain demonstrators and make them easier to identify for arrest.

People are forming human chains to pass supplies including umbrellas, water and helmets to those at the front lines of the stand-off with police.

Updated

The UK Foreign Office has just issued this statement calling for police to grant protesters safe passage out of Hong Kong university campuses:

The UK is seriously concerned by the escalation in violence from both the protesters and the authorities around Hong Kong university campuses. It is vital that those who are injured are able to receive appropriate medical treatment, and that safe passage is made available for all those who wish to leave the area. We need to see an end to the violence, and for all sides to engage in meaningful political dialogue ahead of the district council elections on Sunday.

Updated

For the past hour, crowds of protesters have trying to break the police siege of Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), where hundreds of activists are trapped and have been prevented from leaving. Police are firing teargas to beat back the demonstrators. Our correspondent Lily Kuo is in the neighbourhood of Tsim Sha Tsui and has been posting what she sees on Twitter.

Nearby, in a neighbourhood near the university called Jordan, police are firing rubber bullets and teargas and protesters are throwing petrol bombs.

Updated

The latest from Hong Kong

  • It is evening now in Hong Kong, and hundreds of activists remain besieged inside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), the site of intense clashes today between protesters – many trying to flee the campus after nearly a week inside – and the police determined to keep them holed up.
  • Hong Kong authorities have said the Red Cross is inside the campus and that those requiring hospitalisation will be permitted to leave.
  • As for the rest: “Other than coming out to surrender, I don’t see, at the moment, there is a viable option for them,” said Cheuk Hau-yip, regional commander of Kowloon West, in a press conference this evening. Those who are arrested risk being charged with rioting, which carries a maximum 10-year jail sentence.
  • Parents of some of those trapped inside PolyU (who include around 100 secondary school students) are sitting down in front of the police cordon blocking access to the campus holding signs that read, “Save Our Kids”.
  • Protesters are clashing with law enforcement in other parts of the city, partly as a tactic to draw police resources away from the blockaded university, giving activists there a chance to escape. Activists claim some students have managed to get out of the campus through an unguarded path.
  • Administrators have warned the continued unrest might mean the postponement of district council elections scheduled for Sunday. That could further stoke the protesters, who see the polls as one of the few institutional mechanisms to voice their grievances and influence Hong Kong politics.
  • Earlier today, protesters won a legal victory with the high court finding a law against wearing masks in public was unconstitutional. Police say they have already stopped enforcing that controversial law.

Updated

In Tsim Sha Tsui, an area south of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, hundreds of protesters are facing off against riot police after having dug up bricks from the sidewalks and scattered them along the road. The longer the siege goes on at the university the more other places turn into flash points as protesters and their supporters rally and try to pull police resources away.

Updated

Hong Kong media is now reporting that district council elections may not be held this Sunday as scheduled because of the ongoing demonstrations, which included the arrest of 154 people on the weekend (bringing the total number of those arrested throughout the five-month movement to 4,491).

The Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Patrick Nip, told RTHK news that the government’s position was that it would still endeavour to hold the elections. the government’s position is clear that it will try its very best to ensure that the polls can go ahead smoothly.

“However, the situation in the past weekend has obviously reduced the chance of holding the elections as scheduled and I’m very worried and anxious about this,” Nip said.

“I must say that postponing the election is a difficult decision to make and we will not take this step unless absolutely necessary.”

Cancelling elections is likely to make things much worse. Some protesters have been demanding that the government promise to hold the polls, seen as the last institutional venue people have for expressing their views.

Updated

Hong Kong’s protest movement has evolved throughout the five months it has raged in the harbour city. Its latest phase is taking place on Hong Kong’s university campuses — traditionally sites of political activism — some of which have been transformed into makeshift fortresses by demonstrators in the past fortnight.

The immediate trigger for the battle to shift to campuses appears to have been the 8 November death of a Hong Kong University of Science and Technology student. Since then, several campuses have been barricaded by students, some of who are using footbridges or or near the campuses to block major roads. At least three campuses are currently blockaded, including most prominently the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and an adjacent road leading to the cross-harbour tunnel — a key artery for traffic in the city, and one that authorities will be determined to re- open.

Screengrab from Google Maps showing road closures around Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University
Screengrab from Google Maps showing road closures around Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University Photograph: Google Maps

The campus confrontations have been desperate: activists are using petrol bombs, bamboo poles and other weapons including javelins and bows and arrows. Observers have told the Guardian the shift to campuses represents a major escalation. Many of those occupying the campuses are current students or alumni, and until recently, riot police have refrained from entering universities.

“The university is the home turf of the students,” Ho-Fung Hung, a professor in political economy at Johns Hopkins University, has told the Guardian. “There is this notion of academic freedom and the university as a bastion of free ideas, this notion of autonomy. To people, this should not be breached by authorities.”

Riot police move into the campus of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, early Monday, Nov. 18, 2019. Hong Kong police have stormed into a university campus held by protesters after an all-night standoff. Fiery explosions could be seen inside as riot officers entered before dawn. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
Riot police move into the campus of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, early Monday, Nov. 18, 2019. Hong Kong police have stormed into a university campus held by protesters after an all-night standoff. Fiery explosions could be seen inside as riot officers entered before dawn. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) Photograph: Vincent Yu/AP

Updated

Injured people to be allowed out of Polytechnic University: police

There has been confusion throughout Monday about whether protesters will be allowed to leave the besieged university campus they have been occupying for the past few days. Earlier attempts to escape have been met with tear gas and arrest, prompting some of the protesters to retreat back inside.

Hong Kong police have just issued a statement saying the Red Cross has been allowed onto the campus and will be allowed to convey some students to hospital “if necessary”.

Here’s the statement:

Police are aware of injuries inside Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) which has been struck by recurrent violence. Police attach great importance to the situation and have arranged for ambulances to convey injured people to hospital for treatment. This morning (November 18), Police started to make arrangement for Red Cross volunteers to enter the PolyU. At around 2pm [6am GMT], Red Cross volunteers arrived at PolyU to provide first aid to injured people, some of whom would be conveyed to hospital if necessary.

Police have formed a tight perimeter around Hong Kong Polytechnic University and are not letting anyone in, including journalists. Protesters trying to escape have been tear gassed and arrested, and some have retreated back inside.

A volunteer inside the campus says there are about 300 or 400 people left in the university. Asked what they plan to do, she says: “They are 20 year old kids. They don’t have plans. Everyone is nervous.”

Parents have also collected by a police cordon nearby.

Our correspondent in Hong Kong, Lily Kuo, has posted these views of the besieged Hong Kong Polytechnic University, that show thick smoke billowing from the campus and multiple explosions — with hundreds of students still inside.

Updated

The Associated Press has published its latest update, which describes how police are preventing protesters from leaving the campus:

Hundreds of protesters in Hong Kong are trapped inside a university campus, with police firing rounds of teargas at them to stop them breaking through a cordon to escape the area.

Protesters stuck in Hong Kong Polytechnic University advanced on the police from outside the cordon, while others emerged from the campus. However, they faced teargas and in some places police swooped in to make arrests.

It is unclear if any of those who have been stuck in the area have managed to make it out.

For days, protesters fortified the campus to keep police from getting in. Becoming cornered by authorities, they tried to get out but officers repelled one attempt Monday morning with teargas. They drove a few hundred protesters back onto the campus. The protesters want to avoid arrest and the police want to pick up as many as they can.

Many protesters wear masks to shield their identities from surveillance cameras that could be used to prosecute them. Police have charged protesters for hiding their faces, despite protesters winning a legal front that challenged a “ban on masks” imposed by the government.

… Police have set up a dragnet around the campus to try to arrest protesters, who typically try to melt away after blocking traffic or causing other disruption before police run in to grab as many as they can.

Updated

Hello, this is Sarah Marsh, taking over our live coverage of Hong Kong, where police and protesters have been clashing on the outskirts of the Polytechnic University. The latest images from chaotic scenes in and around the campus, which has become the site of the most prolonged and tense confrontation between police and demonstrators in more than five months of political unrest.

Protesters run as police fire tear gas near Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Police have swooped in with tear gas and batons as demonstrators make an apparent last-ditch effort to escape arrest.
Protesters run as police fire tear gas near Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Police have swooped in with tear gas and batons as demonstrators make an apparent last-ditch effort to escape arrest. Photograph: Achmad Ibrahim/AP
A police officer prepares to fire his weapon during clashes with protestors. Authorities fought off protesters as they tried to break through a police cordon that is trapping hundreds of them on a university campus.
A police officer prepares to fire his weapon during clashes with protestors. Authorities fought off protesters as they tried to break through a police cordon that is trapping hundreds of them on a university campus. Photograph: Ng Han Guan/AP
A policeman in riot gear points his weapon as protesters trying to flee from the university.
A policeman in riot gear points his weapon as protesters trying to flee from the university. Photograph: Ng Han Guan/AP
Police officers detain a protester.
Police officers detain a protester. Photograph: Achmad Ibrahim/AP

Updated

Thanks for following our rolling coverage of the latest developments in Hong Kong. We are going to pause the liveblog now, but will continue in-depth coverage.

Here is our full news story on what happened today.

To recap:

  • Protesters and police remain locked in a standoff at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
  • Hong Kong’s High Court has ruled that a ban on masks and face-coverings is unconstitutional.
  • Hundreds of people in other parts of the city have been arrested as they express support for those within the university.
  • Confusion reigns over whether protesters can leave the university. At 7am, they were told by the Poly U president that they could leave the campus under a police ceasefire – but they were driven back inside by round after round of teargas.
  • At 12pm, police told protesters to lay down their weapons and leave peacefully, but a source told media that they could still be arrested.
  • Police claimed they shot teargas at the earlier attempt to leave because protesters threw petrol bombs and charged at officers.
  • A senior United States official has condemned the “unjustified use of force” and says they are monitoring events in Hong Kong.

The ban on face coverings was enabled by the declaration of emergency powers, under a colonial British-era rule that had not been used since 1967.

The emergency regulations ordinance was created by the British in 1922, and grants the government power to “make any regulations” in the public interest during “an occasion of emergency or public danger”.

Chief executive Carrie Lam had declared the ordinance in October, and used it to pass the anti-mask rule.

But that declaration of emergency powers was itself not overruled by today’s High Court judgment.

Some text of the judgment below.

The court found that the mask ban went “further than is reasonably necessary”, and was a “restriction on fundamental rights”.

The ban on face coverings failed a test of proportionality. Though it was “rationally connected to legitimate societal aims”, it went too far.

High Court rules mask ban unconstitutional

Breaking news. The High Court has ruled the ban on face masks and coverings, established in October, unconstitutional.

More details to come soon.

Two big updates on the standoff at Poly U, from the South China Morning Post.

Quoting a police source, the newspaper reports that protesters will still be arrested if they leave Poly U peacefully.

Earlier, the police had told protesters to “drop their weapons”, take off gas masks and leave through one particular exit.

“We may record that they leave peacefully for future court reference,” the police source said, but confirmed they could still be arrested.

At the same time, SCMP correspondent Jeffie Lam reports that the council chairman of Poly U had asked Hong Kong police to meet to discuss “how to resolve the crisis in a peaceful manner”.

But police are yet to reply.

The acting president of the student union, Ken Woo, also claims more than 600 people remain inside the university, higher than previous estimates of 200.

Earlier today, chief executive Carrie Lam visited an injured police officer in hospital.

The officer had been shot in the leg with an arrow on Sunday during the early stages of the Poly U standoff.

An escalating situation along Gascoigne Road, in Jordan, on the outskirts of Poly U.

Police are currently advancing along the road and firing tear gas, while protesters respond with “at least one petrol bomb”, according to the South China Morning Post.

Protesters and police are 100 metres apart, SCMP report.

Here is Deutsche Welle reporter Phoebe Kong on the same theme.

The Foreign Correspondents Club has condemned the police obstruction of media coverage of the Poly U standoff.

The FCC says journalists were blocked from entry and exit, searched and threatened with arrest under riot charges.

They are also calling on police to investigate reports of an incident in Mong Kok where an officer allegedly targeted a journalist.

“The FCC calls on the police to conduct a thorough investigation of a police officer who allegedly targeted a journalist in Mong Kok this weekend with a sponge grenade. Police said the officer was put on leave and that they are investigating the incident.

“The FCC considers this a serious breach of press freedom and the right of the media under Hong Kong law to cover the protests free of intimidation or violence...We again call for an independent investigation into police violence against journalists and any interference with the media’s right under Hong Kong law to cover the unrest.”

The full statement is here.

On the outskirts of the university, a protester has also been shot in the forehead with a projectile and is bleeding, according to Hong Kong Free Press and the South China Morning Post.

The man is on Gascogne Road outside Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei.

At the same time, police have also fired tear gas into a crowd across the West Kowloon Corridor, the SCMP reports.

Police call on protesters to "drop weapons" and leave "in orderly manner"

Hong Kong police have released a statement, calling on protesters to leave the campus via a specific route: the top level of Cheong Wan Road South Bridge.

Earlier, protesters had attempted to leave, but had been driven back in by multiple rounds of tear gas.

The statement has no indication of whether protesters will be arrested or not.

“The police appeal to everyone inside the Polytechnic University to drop their weapons and dangerous items, remove their gas masks and leave via the top level of Cheong Wan Road South Bridge in an orderly manner,” it says.

“They should follow police instructions and must not charge at police cordons.”

The statement says tear gas was fired during the last attempt to leave because the protesters had thrown petrol bombs and “charged” at cordons.

“After repeated warnings were ignored, police officers dispersed the rioters with tear gas, the minimum force necessary,” they said. “The rioters are hereby warned to stop their unlawful acts.”

Updated

Summary – Mass arrests in Tsim Sha Tsui as Poly U remains under siege

Over the past two hours, attention has turned to the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui – outside Poly U – where over a hundred people have been arrested and detained in public.

As those inside the campus continue their standoff with police, dozens of people outside, who have variously been trying to reach the university, provide support or ask police to lift the siege, have been arrested.

A senior US official has also condemned the “unjustified use of force” in Hong Kong in recent days, and said they are monitoring the situation.

Earlier, the university president, Professor Teng Jin-guang, said he had negotiated a temporary suspension of the use of force with the police and urged protesters to “leave the campus in a peaceful manner”.

But as protesters tried to leave the university, at 8.30am, they were stopped by “round after round” of tear gas, lasting a few minutes, forcing them back inside.

Protesters are now currently still inside the university campus, fearing that they will be trapped and arrested en masse by police.

The Hang Seng has risen again, despite the unrest today.

An hour ago, the index was up 0.56%. It’s now up 1.13%, as of 11am.

At least 38 people have been injured and taken to hospital since Sunday morning, according to the Hospital Authority.

The oldest is an 84-year old man.

14 people received hospital treatment on Sunday, and 24 more were taken to hospital between Sunday midnight and 7.30 am on Monday.

Five people are in a serious condition, and 17 people are stable but remain in hospital.

Pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo says medics are among those arrested at Poly U.

US condemns "unjustified use of force" and says it is monitoring events in Hong Kong

According to Reuters, a senior US official has condemned the “unjustified use of force” in Hong Kong and encouraged China to “protect Hong Kong’s freedom”.

“We condemn the unjustified use of force and urge all sides to refrain from violence and engage in constructive dialogue,” the official said.

“The United States expects Beijing to honour its commitments under the Sino-British joint Declaration and to protect Hong Kong’s freedom, legal system and democratic way of life.”

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China will close five of its branches today due to the unrest, the South China Morning Post reports.

Estimates are that more than 100 people have been arrested in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Some further footage of the dozens of protestors who were arrested in Tsim Sha Tsui at around 10am.

The violent scenes in Hong Kong don’t appear to have unnerved investors, who have sent the Hang Seng index up by 0.56%. The benchmark index lost more than 1,000 points last week amid the turmoil but it’s looking a bit healthier today, up 115 points to 26,442.

This is Naaman Zhou, taking over from my colleague Kate Lyons.

Two protesters at Poly U have reportedly surrendered themselves to police, according to this footage from Reuters.

Chinese state media labels protesters ‘competely hysterical terrorists’

The Global Times, a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, has published its take on last night’s clashes between police and demonstrators, whom the paper labelled “terrorists” who had turned the university into a “warzone”. The paper said that protesters had “gone completely hysterical and acted like terrorists as they attack police with lethal weapons, target innocent residents and turn campuses into battlefields.”

“At midnight, Hong Kong Police Superintendent Louis Lau Siu-pong warned rioters during a live broadcast that if they continued to attack the police with deadly weapons including Molotov cocktails and arrows, the police would respond with all possible minimum force, which would include live rounds,” read the article.

“Around 10 pm, a rioter drove a car at police and crushed one from behind. One officer fired a live round at the vehicle. The police have condemned such terrorist-like activities. Skirmishes started since Saturday night, when black-clad rioters near the PolyU staged a confrontation with police. Rioters started fires, set up barricades, hurled Molotov cocktails, while local media reported that hazardous chemicals had been stolen from multiple campus laboratories of PolyU.”

The paper also noted that a police officer from the Force Media Liaison Cadre was shot with an arrow during the fighting.

Hong Kong Free Press reports that dozens of civilians, not those who have been camped out in Poly U, have been arrested in the street after asking police to lift the siege on the university and let protesters leave.

This follows reports of police chasing away civilians from the areas near the cordon around the university, pepper-spraying them, and threatening to shoot them.

Updated

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. We believe this is in relation to the attempt of police to storm the university in the early hours of this morning and not in relation to police blocking protesters from leaving the university campus in the last hour.

Summary – Tension ramp up as police block protesters from leaving university

A large group of anti-government protesters try to find safe passage out of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and dodge police in Hung Hom district of Hong Kong on November 18, 2019
A large group of anti-government protesters try to find safe passage out of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and dodge police in Hung Hom district of Hong Kong on November 18, 2019 Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images

In the last half hour, the situation has escalated at the Poly U, where protesters have been bunkered down for two days.

Police attempted to storm Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University on Sunday night after a daylong battle with protesters which saw levels of violence between the two sides reach new heights on Sunday and officials threatened to use live rounds.

About 200 demonstrators remained inside the building at dawn on Monday morning when police in riot gear moved in. As they advanced, protesters set fire to one of the entrances to the university and explosions could be heard.

However, later on Monday morning, things seemed calmer and the university’s president issued a video statement urging students to surrender to police and leave the university campus, saying he had negotiated a temporary suspension of the use of force with the police.

At about 8:30am local time, large numbers of protesters tried to leave the university campus, but were stopped from moving through the streets by police who fired “round after round” of tear gas at protesters. Explosions and gun fire could be heard in some videos showing the protesters attempting to leave the campus, which were posted online.

Protesters were forced back into the university grounds, raising fears that the police had no interest in deescalating the situation, but were aiming to trap all protesters, so they could be arrested and punished for their role in the siege.

Some disturbing reports coming through of police using considerable force on civilians, journalists and first aiders who are trying to get close to the area cordoned off by police around the university.

There are reports that hundreds of Poly U students are trying to leave the university, as police attempt to stop them, firing tear gas at protesters. In some videos, there is what sounds like gunfire in the background, with Reuters reporting that “riot police open fire”.

Police fire rounds of tear gas at protesters as they try to leave the campus

Protesters are trying to leave the university campus, but are being blocked by police who are firing round after round of tear gas at the demonstrators. Jennifer Wang, a reporter on the ground, says “police have not stopped firing teargas in the last 10 mins.”

The protesters are throwing petrol bombs at the police to try and clear a path through and get out of the university.

Updated

The Hong Kong Free Press has video from inside an office at the university, where protesters hid from police. They left a mess, including blood throughout the office, as well as leaving a note addressed to the person whose office it was, which apologised for the mess, saying they “needed to escape to your office because riot police are charging by surprise.”

There are reports that a large number of protesters are now leaving the university campus.

In the English section of the video statement, which can be seen here, a spokesman said that police had denied entering the campus, but claimed this was untrue.

Footage from 7am.

Professor Teng Jin-guang, the president of Poly U has released a video statement saying he had negotiated a temporary suspension of the use of force with the police and urged protesters to “leave the campus in a peaceful manner”.

However, in telling them to leave the campus, he is also suggesting they will have to turn themselves in to police, saying he would “personally accompany you to the police station to ensure that your case will be fairly processed.”

Here is the full text of his statement :

I have been communicating closely with the police since last evening. We have now received the assurance of police of a temporary suspension of the use of force, under the condition that if the protesters do not initiate the use of force, police will not initiate the use of force.

In addition, we have received permission from the police for you to leave the campus peacefully and I will personally accompany you to the police station to ensure that your case will be fairly processed.

For students from Poly U, our office of counselling and wellness will provide you with counselling and all the necessary support to help you during this difficult time. I hope that you will accept the proposed temporary suspension of force and leave the campus in a peaceful manner.

Good morning, this is Kate Lyons taking over from Naaman Zhou. The mood appears tense inside the university. Protesters are live-streaming events within the university.

At the moment, protesters – may of whom are wearing protective gear like helmets, gas masks and makeshift body armour, like knee guards and shin pads – are gathering and milling around. There does not seem to be any violence at present.

This morning’s standoff began yesterday, when police attempted to clear the university of protestors.

Poly U has been occupied by pro-democracy protesters since last week, and the university has become the site of some of the tensest moments yet in six months of unrest.

On Sunday, police flew a helicopter over the campus, and shot blue-dye laced with pepper spray at protesters. This came after protesters set fire to a pedestrian bridge. From the roof of the university, protesters have thrown petrol bombs and used bows and arrows to shoot at police, with one officer shot in the calf.

Protests also broke out at other locations around the city, to draw police resources away from the university.

On Sunday night and Monday morning, riot police moved in to Poly U. In a video statement, police officials threatened to use live rounds. Protestors established barricades and set fire to one of the entrances. Roughly 200 people are currently inside the university as of Monday morning.

Updated

From Associated Press: The Education Bureau has announced that classes from kindergarten to high school would be suspended again on Monday because of safety concerns.

Classes have been canceled since Thursday, after the bureau came under criticism for not doing so earlier.

A fire is burning at one of the entrances to Poly U, with the smoke visible across the city.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the unfolding police operation at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University, where 200 protesters have been engaged in a standoff with police overnight. Police in riot gear entered the university at dawn, and protesters have set fire to one entrance.

Here is our main story on the police raid and battles between protesters and officers on Sunday:

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After being spotted in the Big Apple, singer Pink is said to have moved to New York and is said to be in the running to take over Kelly Clarkson’s NBC talk show.
BANG Premier
BANG Premier
Sorry, ZeLink shippers, Zelda actor still thinks the 40-year-old pairing is better left "ambiguous": "If there are romantic undertones, it's left in an unrequited state"
"I have all sorts of personal theories," she says
GamesRadar
GamesRadar
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