A burst of violence in Hong Kong has pushed the city, gripped by more than five months of political unrest, even further away from the possibility of peaceful resolution.
After the death of a demonstrator on Friday and a weekend of clashes between police and protesters, Hong Kong woke up on Monday to live footage of a police officer shooting a 21-year-old student at close range in the stomach. Later, videos emerged of a 57-year-old construction worker being set on fire while arguing with demonstrators, and a police officer repeatedly driving his motorbike at a group of protesters.
Those scenes, already some of the most graphic examples of violence since the anti-government protests began, were soon eclipsed by an hours-long battle at one of Hong Kong’s most prestigious universities. Police rained teargas and rubber bullets on students, shrouding the school in smoke as protesters responded with molotov cocktails and in some cases fiery arrows dipped in petrol.
On Wednesday, as parts of the city were paralysed, protesters at universities were bracing for more confrontations, stockpiling petrol bombs, bamboo poles and other weapons. Some were armed with javelins, bows and arrows.
“It has been an escalation of violence because of an accumulation of several cases … the hostilities were escalating on both sides,” said Ma Ngok, a political scientist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the site of protests on Tuesday night.
