Protesters barricade university against police
Students occupying a university campus in Hong Kong worked hard to fortify their positions and resist a renewed police assault on Wednesday, building a catapult for petrol bombs, setting up security checkpoints and constructing watchtowers.
During another day of violent clashes across the territory, after which at least two more people were said to be fighting for their lives, students holding the Sha Tin campus of the China University in the New Territories asked the public to provide the ingredients to make petrol bombs.
Local residents responded to an online message board request for supplies, including glass bottles, flour, sugar, alcohol, camp oil, gasoline, cooking oil and lighters, to make ‘‘magic fires’’.
A procession about two 2km long of private cars carried the items towards them, and many other people walked up carrying medical, food and other supplies. Inside the campus, in the northeast of Hong Kong’s New Territories, supporters on motorbikes shuttled goods and people around.
In an indication of the ferocity of the clashes as police tried to break down the barricades on Tuesday, the students collected 2356 cartridges: the remains of tear gas canisters and rubber bullets fired at them.
The biggest universities took the unprecedented step of ending term early in an effort to defuse the violence. Police accused the universities of becoming bases for criminals and weapons factories. They also said that protesters had shot ‘‘burning arrows’’ at officers, which the students denied, saying they had only testfired bows taken from the campus sports facilities.
While the students were digging in, protesters caused further disruption across the city, blocking rail lines and main roads and flashmobbing parts of the central business district. Toll booths for the cross harbour tunnel were burnt at dawn and protesters blocked at least ten main roads yesterday.
Following the shooting of a young demonstrator by police on Tuesday, after five months of protests against perceived Beijing meddling in Hong Kong’s affairs, the level of violence has escalated sharply.