Student protesters hold out as Hong Kong leader urges peaceful resolution

Protesters leave the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) campus to surrender to police, in Hong Kong, China - REUTERS

HONG KONG (Reuters): Hong Kong’s embattled leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday she hoped a standoff between police and a hold-out group of anti-government protesters at a university could be resolved and she had told police to handle it humanely.

About 100 protesters remained in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which has been surrounded by police, after more than two days of clashes. Some 280 injured were taken to hospitals yesterday, the Hospital Authority said.

Police have arrested about 1,100 people in the past day on charges including rioting and possession of offensive weapons, they said.

Lam spoke shortly after the city’s new police chief urged the support of all citizens to end more than five months of unrest that was triggered by fears that China’s central government is stifling the city’s special autonomy and freedoms.

In what many will see as an illustration of Beijing’s tightening grip, China’s legislature questioned the legality of a Monday Hong Kong court ruling that a ban on face masks worn by protesters was unlawful.

The National People’s Congress (NPC) said Hong Kong courts had no power to rule on the constitutionality of city legislation, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Lam said her government was very much on the “reactive side” in dealing with the protests but she did not rule out more violence even as she urged peace.

“If the protesters are coming out in a peaceful manner ... then there is no situation when that sort of violence would happen,” she told a press briefing.

However, police would have to take “necessary action” if the situation changed, she said. Lam said she had been shocked that campuses had been turned into “weapons factories”.