Asia

Hong Kong police plan to enter ransacked campus on Thursday

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HONG KONG: Hong Kong police plan to send officers on Thursday (Nov 28) morning into the ransacked remains of a university campus where authorities faced off for days with barricaded protesters, an official said Wednesday.

The announcement came as university leaders called for police to lift their siege given the sprawling facility appeared to be deserted.

Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) was the epicentre of the territory's increasingly violent protest movement when clashes broke out on Nov 17 between police and protesters armed with bows and arrows as well as Molotov cocktails.

READ: Hong Kong university siege winds down as hunt for protesters comes up empty

A "Statue of Democracy" is seen in a hallway of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Nov 26, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Anthony Wallace)

Graffiti reading "No smoke" (no smoking) is pictured next to containers of flammable items used to make Molotov cocktails on the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus, Nov 27, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Anthony Wallace)

The stand-off then settled into a tense stalemate during which hundreds fled the campus – some attempting to get out through sewer lines or shimmying down ropes onto waiting motorbikes – leaving a dwindling core of holdouts surrounded by police cordons.

But in recent days the last few people barricaded in the campus appear to have disappeared, with university staff saying they were only able to find a single protester remaining on campus and reporters on site struggling to see any major presence the last 48 hours.

Police chief superintendent Ricky Ho said "safety teams" comprised of police, fire fighters, paramedics and university staff would enter the campus on Thursday morning to look for any dangerous materials.

"Our safety team, together with some crime officers, will enter the school tomorrow morning," he told reporters late Wednesday.

READ: Hong Kong authorities appeal for calm as major highway reopens

Discarded clothes and other objects are seen in a changing room at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Nov 26, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Anthony Wallace)

Belongings left behind by anti-government protesters are pictured inside the Polytechnic University (PolyU), in Hong Kong, China, Nov 26, 2019. (Photo: Reuters/Adnan Abidi)

"Our ultimate goal is to restore the safety of the campus, and to reopen the campus as soon as possible," he added.

Ho was speaking just hours after the university's leadership called on police to remove their cordons surrounding the towering red-brick campus and asked the government for help in removing dangerous materials "including petrol bombs and other offensive weapons".

"The University suggests that the police need not to conduct a … search, but rather remove the cordon around our campus immediately," PolyU said in a statement.

BATTLEGROUND

AFP journalists at the site on Wednesday found a battleground covered in debris, barricades and the shattered bottles of Molotov cocktails.

A foul odour from rotting food in a canteen and overflowing garbage bins permeates parts of the campus, and defiant graffiti has been scrawled everywhere.