Police stormed into a Hong Kong university campus held by protesters after an all-night siege that included firing repeated barrages of tear gas and water cannon.
Anti-government protesters barricaded themselves inside Hong Kong Polytechnic University for days, fighting back with petrol bombs and bows and arrows.
Police surrounded the area on Sunday night and began moving in after issuing an ultimatum for people to leave the area. The crowd wore raincoats and carried umbrellas to shield themselves.
Riot officers broke in before dawn as fires raged inside and outside the school.
Earlier in the day, protesters used bows and arrows, and one arrow struck a media liaison officer in the calf.
Photos on the department’s Facebook page show the arrow sticking out of the back of the officer’s leg through his trousers.
As riot police moved in from all sides, some protesters retreated inside the university. Others set fires on bridges leading to it.
A huge blaze burned along much of a long 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.
The use of bows and arrows and catapult-launched petrol bombs threatened to escalate the violence in the more than five-month anti-government movement.
Protesters are trying to keep the pressure on Hong Kong leaders, who have rejected most of their demands.
The protests were sparked by proposed legislation that would have allowed the extradition of criminal suspects to the mainland.
Activists saw it as an erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy under the “one country, two systems” formula implemented in 1997, when Britain returned the territory to China.
The bill has been withdrawn, but the protests have expanded into a wider resistance movement against what is perceived as the growing control of Hong Kong by Communist China, along with calls for full democracy for the territory.
Additional reporting from the Associated Press
