Protesters blockade universities, business district as chaos grips Hong Kong

HONG KONG (Reuters): Hong Kong anti-government protesters paralysed parts of the Asian financial hub for a third day yesterday, with some transport links, schools and many businesses closing as police warned of a rise in violence to a deadly level.

About 1,000 protesters blocked roads in the heart of the city’s Central business district at lunchtime. Wearing now-banned face masks and dressed in office wear, they marched and hurled bricks onto roads lined with some of the world’s most expensive real estate and luxury flagship stores.

“It’s now 1989 4th June,” was scrawled on the windows of fashion store Georgio Armani, a reference to the crackdown by Chinese troops on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

Scores of riot police tried to disperse the crowds near the stock exchange, wrestling some people to the ground and beating others with batons.

Protesters and police had battled through Tuesday night at university campuses only hours after a senior police officer said the Chinese-ruled city had been pushed to the “brink of a total breakdown”.

Protesters are angry about what they see as police brutality and meddling by Beijing in the freedoms guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” formula put in place when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

China denies interfering and has blamed Western countries, including Britain and the United States, for stirring up trouble.

Many campuses remained tense on Wednesday with students setting up barricades. Some perched on bridges to keep guard while others checked people coming in. Rows of riot police, some in trucks, watched the students but did not try to break through. The protests typically get more violent as night falls.

Hong Kong’s Education Bureau said all schools would shut on Thursday. Several universities said they would be introducing online learning and other assessment methods for the remaining weeks of the term.

On Tuesday, there were chaotic scenes through the night at the prestigious Chinese University, with explosions, plumes of smoke, yelling and sustained firing of tear gas and rubber bullets during which scores were injured.

Police said they helped a group of mainland students flee Chinese University’s campus by boat on Wednesday after they expressed concern about their safety.

Elsewhere, activists blocked roads, torched several vehicles, hurled petrol bombs at a police station and smashed part of a major shopping mall.