Hong Kong on the ‘brink of breakdown’

Hong Kong was on the brink of a total breakdown as anti-government protests intensified, a police official warned.

A pro-democracy protester sets fire to a subway train during a demonstration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong early on Wednesday morning. Picture: Getty Images

Asia’s financial capital is on the brink of a total breakdown as anti-government protests intensify, a police ­official has warned.

Hong Kong was braced for more violence and many subway and rail stations were closed after protesters blocked commuters and vandalised trains on Tuesday.

Classes were suspended at schools and universities.

Senior Police Superintendent Kong Wing-heung said “our ­society has been pushed to the brink of a total breakdown”.

He said Hong Kong’s mass transit system and subway, known as MTR, was under stress from violence and vandalism. “Masked rioters have lost control and committed insane acts like throwing trash, bicycles and large objects on to MTR tracks, hanging trash on overhead power lines,” he said.

Groups of riot police were ­deployed around central Hong Kong and its outlying territories to try to contain new violence, even as students at the Chinese University in the outskirts of the sprawling metropolis prepared for new clashes with police.

Many protesters were armed with petrol bombs.

Some carried bows and ­arrows that had been stolen from a sports equipment warehouse. Police had entered the campus and fired teargas and used a water cannon late on Tuesday.

Separately, protesters near the University of Hong Kong campus threw chairs and traffic cones from a footbridge on to moving traffic below, injuring a motorbike rider. A police spokesman condemned the action as “murderous”.

At City University, students chopped down trees to build ­barricades.

Commuters across many parts of the city woke on Wednesday to the increasingly familiar scenario of roads choked with bricks, bicycles, couches and other materials that had been laid out by the protesters overnight to block traffic.

Various lines on the subway, used by more than half of the city’s 7.5 million people daily, were also suspended because of vandalism, forcing many workers to stay at home.

The city’s religious leaders ­appealed on Wednesday for an end to the violence and called on police and protesters to show ­restraint.

“At this very critical point, the people of Hong Kong must unite and say no to violence,” said a statement by the leaders of Hong Kong’s six major religious groups.

Recent weeks have been marked by escalating vandalism of shops linked to mainland China and train stations, and ­assaults by both protesters and pro- Beijing supporters.

A policeman drew his gun during a struggle with protesters on Monday, shooting one in the ­abdomen.

In another neighbourhood, a 57-year-old man who was defending China was set on fire after an apparent argument.

Both remain in hospital in a critical condition.

Police have arrested more than 3500 people since the movement began in June.

AP, The Times