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Police and antigovernment protestors clashed violently at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus on Sunday into Monday morning, the latest development in what has been a week of unprecedented violent confrontations between police and protestors on Hong Kong university campuses.
The New York Times reported that police deployed tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons throughout the day on Sunday against protesters continuing a multiday occupation of the HKPU campus. Some of the protesters threw gasoline bombs or were armed with bows and arrows; one police officer was hit in the leg with an arrow. Student leaders reported injuries to protestors including eye injuries and hypothermia as a result of the water cannons.
On Sunday night, police threatened to use lethal force against activists if they did not leave.
On early Monday morning, police reportedly attempted to raid the campus and made arrests. Police retreated after protestors fought back with firebombs and set fire to barricades.
As Hong Kong campuses have become sites of violent standoffs between police and protestors, multiple universities have suspended operations. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Hong Kong and the Open University of Hong Kong have all canceled on-campus classes for the remainder of the semester. NBC News reported that American universities are evacuating students studying abroad in Hong Kong. Many mainland Chinese students who study at Hong Kong’s universities have fled to mainland China, according to the Associated Press.
Antigovernment protests in Hong Kong began in June in response to a proposed law, since withdrawn, that would have allowed extradition from Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China that operates under its own legal system, to the mainland. The protesters’ demands quickly evolved to encompass calls for democracy. The protests were initially peaceful, but encounters between police and protestors have increasingly grown violent.
On Friday, Hong Kong university presidents issued a joint statement calling on the government to restore safety and order.
