Hong Kong protesters enter sewers to escape after police lay siege to university

Pro-democracy protesters holed up inside a Hong Kong University tried to escape through the sewer system, on November 18, after police laid siege to the campus. Around 500 protesters were believed to be trapped inside the university campus after police foiled their plan to attack with Molotov cocktails and other homemade weapons and forced them back.

Police arrest protesters

Hong Kong police, later, cordoned off the area and started arresting students which forced some of the anti-government protesters to remove the manholes and enter it with their gas masks in a desperate bid to escape arrest. City’s chief executive Carrie Lam said that the police arrested around 600 protesters, including 200 minors, left the campus but there are some protesters barricaded inside a building. Protesters have made university campuses as their battlefield for anti-government protests and police are constantly trying to pull out them out of the campus and arrest them. 

Read: China Says Hong Kong Courts Have No Power To Rule On Face Mask Ban

'Rescue PolyU' operation

On November 17, protesters turned a construction site upside down as part of the “Rescue PolyU” operation, to regain the control of the beleaguered Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Hong Kong police, which has already used live rounds to suppress the protest, warned to use it on demonstrators after pro-democracy protesters threw petrol bombs at officers at a university campus. Anti-Beijing protesters have been finding new ways to fight the police officers during the violent clashes. They have resorted to medieval weapons like bow and arrows and bricks and nails.

Read: China Asks US And UK To Stop Trying To Interfere In Hong Kong's Affairs

City in turmoil

Six months of the anti-government protests are getting violent with every passing day, causing chaos in the city of 7.5 million people. Recently, a Hong Kong police officer shot at protesters during the violent clashes, on November 11, which hit at least one of them in the chest in the district of Sai Wan Ho. The clashes were broadcasted live on Facebook in which a police officer can be seen shooting a protester in the chest area when he tried to stop the officer from detaining a fellow masked protester. 

Read: US Condemns 'unjustified Use Of Force' As Clashes Escalate In Hong Kong

Read: M Johnson's Spokesperson Says UK Is 'seriously Concerned' About Hong Kong Violence

(With Inputs from Agencies)