Hong Kong university campus under SIEGEREUTERS
Dozens of protesters escape Poly U on the back of motorbikes as police fire on; China’s UK envoy warns Beijing will not sit back; court rules mask ban unconstitutional
HONGKONG: Dozens of Hong Kong protesters staged a dramatic escape from a university campus sealed off by police on Monday by shimmying down plastic hosing from a bridge and fleeing on waiting motorbikes as the police fired projectiles at them.
Many more protesters remained trapped inside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Poly U), and two prominent figures were allowed by police onto the campus late on Monday to mediate, a sign that there is a growing risk of bloodshed. “The situation is getting more and more dangerous,” Jasper Tsang, a pro-beijing politician who is the former head of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, said after he arrived as big explosions were heard and flames flared up in the campus.
The university is at the centre of a standoff in the past week that has seen the most intense violence in five months of anti-government demonstrations.
Some of the protesters who escaped on Monday did so by lowering themselves about 10 metres from a bridge they had occupied on the campus to a flyover below. They then sped off on the back of motorcycles which were already waiting or quickly arrived. a number of them appeared subsequently to have been arrested.
Other protesters, hurling petrol bombs, tried repeatedly to break into the campus but police fired tear gas and water cannon Monday to push them back.
The city’s hospital authority reported 116 injuries on Monday, including one female in serious condition.
Earlier on Monday, police tightened their cordon around the Polytechnic University, and fired rubber bullets and tear gas to pin back a few hundred antigovernment protesters armed with petrol bombs and other weapons and stop them from fleeing. Dozens, choking on the tear gas, tried to leave the campus by breaking through police lines, but were pushed back.
Tsang, who with legal scholar Eric Cheung was the first prominent mediator allowed by police to enter the campus, said there were young children and elderly people trapped inside the campus and that it was a priority to get the children out first.
Police said officers had been deployed “on the periphery” of the campus for a week, appealing to “rioters” to leave.
Police say 4,491 people, aged from 11 to 83, have been arrested since protests began in June.
CHINA WILL NOT SIT BACK , WARNS ENVOY
China’s ambassador to London said on Monday foreign countries, including the United States and Britain, should stop interfering in Hong Kong’s internal affairs as protesters continued to battle with police.
China will not simply sit back and watch if months of protests in
Hong Kong develop into an “uncontrollable” situation, the country’s ambassador to Britain said Monday.
“I think the Hong Kong government is trying very hard to put the situation under control,” Liu Xiaoming told a London press conference, as fresh violence erupts after months of protests.
Liu Xiaoming singled out Britain and the United States for meddling in internal Chinese affairs.
“We would like to tell those external forces that the Chinese government remains steadfast... to oppose any” external interference in Hong Kong affairs, he said.
The comments came as Britain, the former colonial power in Hong Kong, as well as the European Union expressed concerns about the escalation of violence between protesters and authorities.
COURT RULES MASK BAN UNCONSTITUTIONAL
Lam’s government also suffered a setback when Hong Kong’s High Court ruled that her government’s attempt to quell protests with a controversial ban on face masks - rolled out with colonialera emergency powers - was unconstitutional.
The High Court ruling came on Monday in response to a challenge filed by the city’s opposition lawmakers. Lam had imposed the ban last month by invoking colonial-era emergency powers for the first time in more than a half century.
“The government should fully respect the decision,” Alvin Yeung, an opposition lawmaker, said of the court’s ruling.
Following the ruling, senior police superintendent Li Kwaiwah told a regular briefing that officers would temporarily stop enforcing the mask ban.