Hong Kong police warn people of using 'live fire' as campus protest siege deepens

Hong Kong police on Monday, vember 18, warned for first time in months of unrest that y may use "live rounds" after pro-democracy protesters fired arrows and threw petrol bombs at officers at a besieged university campus, as crisis engulfing city sharply escalated.

Protests have tremored through global financial hub since June, with many in city of 7.5 million people venting fury at eroding freedoms under Chinese rule.

China has repeatedly warned that it will t tolerate dissent, and re have been concerns that Beijing could send in troops to put an end to spiralling unrest.

A day of intense, rolling clashes on Sunday, which saw a police officer struck in leg by an arrow and protesters meet police tear gas with volleys of petrol bombs, worsened as night fell.

Clashes spre across Kowloon, with epicentre around Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), where scores of defiant demonstrators set large fires to prevent police from conducting a threatened raid on campus.

y hunkered down under umbrellas from occasional fire from water cann and hurled Molotov cocktails at an armoured police vehicle, leaving it ablaze on a flyover near campus.

Police declared campus a "riot" scene -- a rioting conviction carries up to 10 years in jail -- and blocked exits as spokesman Louis Lau issued a stark warning in a Facebook live brocast.

"I hereby warn rioters t to use petrol bombs, arrows, cars or any dely weapons to attack police officers," he said.

"If y continue such dangerous actions, we would have choice but to use minimum force necessary, including live rounds, to fire back." Three protesters have been shot by police in unrelenting months of protests, but all in scuffles as chaotic street clashes played out -- and without a sweeping warning being given by a force which overwhelmingly depends on tear gas, water cann, and rubber bullets.

Fear gripped protesters still trapped on Monday inside campus -- whose occupation is a twist in tactics by a leerless movement so far defined by its fluid, unpredictable nature.

"I feel scared. re's way out, all I can do is fight to end," said one protester joining barrice in front of university building.

Owen Li, a PolyU council member, and student said "panic" h taken hold of estimated few hundred protesters who remained.

"Many friends feel helpless... we appeal to all of society to come out and help us." Throughout Sunday, activists parried attempts by police to break through into campus, firing rocks from a homeme catapult from university roof, while an AFP reporter saw a team of masked archers -- several carrying sports bows -- patrolling site.

Violence has worsened in recent days, with two men killed in separate incidents linked to protests this month.

Chinese President Xi Jinping this week issued his most strident comments on crisis, saying it threatened "one country, two systems" model under which Hong Kong has been ruled since 1997 handover from Britain.

Demonstrators last week engineered a "Blossom Everywhere" campaign of blockes and vandalism, which forced police to draft in prison officers as reinforcements, shut down large chunks of Hong Kong's transport network and closed schools and shopping malls.

movement, characterised by its fluidity and unpredictability, has started to coagulate in fixed locations, showing protesters' ability to switch tactics.

protests started against a w-shelved bill to allow extrition to China but have billowed to encompass wider issues such as perceived police brutality and calls for universal suffr in former British colony.

financial hub has been nudged into a recession by unrelenting turmoil.

A poster circulating on social media called for "dawn action" to continue on Monday.

"Squeeze ecomy to increase pressure," it said.

Earlier on Sunday, dozens of government supporters gared to clear barrices near university campus -- a sign of divisions slicing through city.

Many residents are wearied by sapping protests. Ors support Chinese-backed city government.

Some applauded a Saturday clean-up by Chinese troops from a garrison of People's Liberation Army in Kowloon.

garrison is usually confined to barracks under Hong Kong's mini-constitution, although it can be deployed at request of city's government to help with public order breakdown or natural disasters.

Hong Kong's government, which presides over a city that enjoys greater freedoms than mainland, said it did t ask PLA for help on Saturday.

choreographed troop movement "has only compounded impression that Beijing has simply igred" Hong Kong's unique political system, said analyst Dixon Sing.

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