Hong Kong was paralysed on Wednesday morning, with much of the city’s public transport suspended and all universities closed following sharp clashes overnight with anti-government protesters, The Guardian.
Many subway and rail stations were closed after the protesters blocked commuters and vandalised trains. Classes were suspended at schools and universities. Groups of riot police were deployed around the city centre and outlying territories to try to contain fresh violence, as students at the Chinese University prepared for more clashes with police. Many were armed with petrol bombs while some carried bows and arrows.
At the Chinese University of Hong Kong police fired tear gas and rubber bullets as protesters started fires and threw petrol bombs. Considerable student anger over police moving their operation onto campuses was matched by police warning that the rule of law was close to “collapse”, the BBC reports.
CNN reports that on Tuesday, hundreds of black-clad protesters, many of them students, attempted to block riot police from entering the prestigious and largely isolated Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) near Tai Po. Under a barrage of constant tear gas, protesters hurled bricks and petrol bombs at police.
The eruption of violence at CUHK follows some of the worst unrest seen in the semi-autonomous Chinese city since anti-government protests began nearly five months ago, with police describing the situation as on the “brink of a total breakdown.”
Unrest is expected to continue throughout the day, with CUHK as the main focus. Attention in the city has been focused on the campus, and dramatic pictures coming out of it overnight largely replaced those from earlier this week on front pages and social media, including the shooting of a protester by a police officer and the setting on fire of a man following a dispute with protesters Monday.
