Protesters try to escapeuni after skirmish with police
- 5 years ago
HONG KONG — Protestors had started to flee the blockaded Polytechnic University on monday, with the Hong Kong police force meeting them with tear gas and rubber bullets; multiple arrests were made, with those caught being aggressively detained.
Protestors claim that even though they were trying to leave, they were being boxed in by the authorities.
A 23-year-old protestor inside the university campus told CNN by phone, "Of course, we want to leave."
"We are still quite safe currently in the campus, but if we try to leave ... they will arrest us."
"They are just everywhere surrounding the campus."
The protester added, "Currently, around me, we just want to escape, we don't have any equipment to help us fight."
He later fled unharmed and knows of roughly 50 more individuals who escaped, some by abseiling down a rope to waiting motorbikes or running along train tracks.
More worryingly, police confirmed to CNN that assault rifles being carried by riot police Monday afternoon, were in fact, "ready to use."
Demonstrators, however, will be more frightful than ever after a video surfaced on Monday of apparently detained protestors being loaded onto a train near the border of China for speculated extradition.
According to Taiwan News, the footage is sparking dread online that the pro-democracy protesters are in fact being sent to a detention center in communist China, similar to the so-called "reeducation camps" used to imprison innocent Uighurs.
Protestors claim that even though they were trying to leave, they were being boxed in by the authorities.
A 23-year-old protestor inside the university campus told CNN by phone, "Of course, we want to leave."
"We are still quite safe currently in the campus, but if we try to leave ... they will arrest us."
"They are just everywhere surrounding the campus."
The protester added, "Currently, around me, we just want to escape, we don't have any equipment to help us fight."
He later fled unharmed and knows of roughly 50 more individuals who escaped, some by abseiling down a rope to waiting motorbikes or running along train tracks.
More worryingly, police confirmed to CNN that assault rifles being carried by riot police Monday afternoon, were in fact, "ready to use."
Demonstrators, however, will be more frightful than ever after a video surfaced on Monday of apparently detained protestors being loaded onto a train near the border of China for speculated extradition.
According to Taiwan News, the footage is sparking dread online that the pro-democracy protesters are in fact being sent to a detention center in communist China, similar to the so-called "reeducation camps" used to imprison innocent Uighurs.