HONG KONG PROTESTS

Violence worsens as police, radicals clash at siege of Polytechnic University

By SCMP Graphics NOVEMBER 19, 2019
UPDATED NOVEMBER 20, 2019

On Monday afternoon hundreds of protesters remained holed up in Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus in Hung Hom.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19
Around 60 to 100 radicals remained on campus, determined to resist capture and refusing to join over 1,000 of their comrades who had voluntarily submitted or been forcibly arrested.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18

Over the course of the early morning, hundreds of masked radicals and police officers remained locked in a stand-off at PolyU after more than 24 hours of violent clashes, which saw three live rounds fired. Police fired 1,458 rounds of tear gas, 1,391 rubber bullets, 325 beanbag rounds and 265 sponge grenades on Monday.

ROADS BLOCKED
As night fell, police appeared to have boxed in hundreds of radical protesters at Polytechnic University by surrounding the campus and cordoning off linking roads, leaving no way out.

5:30AM, NOV 18
Clashes that occurred sporadically overnight escalated at about 5.30am when riot police appeared to try to enter the campus. Radicals were seen setting fire to the school’s main entrance on Cheong Wan Road and hurling petrol bombs from above at the officers, who fired multiple rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets from the rooftop of the adjacent Hong Kong Museum of History

AT 10PM, NOV 17
A white Ford sedan without licence plates tried to ram a group of police officers just outside the Gun Club Hill Barracks on Austin Road. An officer fired one live round at the vehicle and another one shot it with a rubber bullet. The car stopped and then took off towards Tsim Sha Tsui

9:31PM, NOV 17
Police set up checkpoints and allowed people inside the campus, including reporters and first-aid volunteers, to leave through the exit of Lee Shau Kee Building (Core Y) at the Polytechnic University campus and another exit near to the Concordia Plaza. The Police Public Relations Branch warned that anyone who left the PolyU campuswithout press credentials would be arrested.

AROUND 7:30AM, NOV 17
Radical protesters set a footbridge alight near the entrance to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel in Hung Hom. The bridge, which had been a major battleground between protesters and police at Polytechnic University burned uncontrollably.

AROUND 2PM, NOV 17
A sergeant from the media liaison branch was shot in his lower leg with an arrow. He was sent to Kwong Wah Hospital in Yau Ma Tei for treatment.

10AM, NOV 17
Radical protesters set a footbridge alight near the entrance to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel in Hung Hom. The bridge, which had been a major battleground between protesters and police at Polytechnic University burned uncontrollably

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