Desperate Hong Kong protesters explore sewers in campus escape bid
HONG KONG: Arms covered in cling film and torches in hand as they drop into the sewers, clusters of ..
HONG KONG: Arms covered in cling film and torches in hand as they drop into the sewers, clusters of protesters still inside a Hong Kong campus are plotting increasingly ingenious – and desperate – ways to escape a police siege.
Among the detritus of a scorched and graffiti-sprayed concourse at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, several plastic covers – some with torches placed above them – betray extraordinary underground escape plans.
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Protesters have removed metal manholes, some making exploratory forays into the fetid tunnels, following rumours of successful exfiltrations from a campus ringed for three days by baton-wielding police determined to arrest them.
READ: Hong Kong protests: 1,100 people arrested in a day, 3,900 petrol bombs found at university
A protester tries to escape from a sewage tunnel inside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus during protests, Nov 19, 2019. (Photo: Reuters/Adnan Abidi)
A protester crawls within a sewer tunnel to see how wide it is as he and others try to find an escape route from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Nov 19, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Anthony Wallace)
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Pockets of protesters, some with thick bandages wrapped around their knees in anticipation of a long crawl to freedom, knot the holes discussing an unlikely – and highly dangerous – breakout.
AFP reporters saw one group on their stomachs practising crawling. Another group hugged each other in consolation after apparently agreeing not to take the route down into the unknown.
"The people outside can't help us," a protester told local television as he prepared to descend into a sewer. "So what can we do?"
One protester, gas mask on, and cling film wrapped around his arms, carried a torch as he descended with his backpack down the metal rungs into the subterranean gloom.
READ: Hong Kong university protesters defy surrender warnings
A protester climbs down into the sewer, Nov 19, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Anthony Wallace)
A protester uses a torch light while crawling within a sewer tunnel, Nov 19, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Anthony Wallace)
Desperation has stalked the protesters for two days since an occupation of the city centre campus turned into a police seige.
"We can get through today … I don't know about tomorrow," Fung, 43, a kitchen volunteer helping feed protesters in a campus canteen told AFP on Monday.
So far the daring escape bids have been matched by their danger.
Late on Monday, dozens of protesters in civilian clothes slid down several metres of rope onto a flyover, where a cavalcade of motorbikes conducted a smash and grab rescue mission.
Police said 37 of the escapees and bike drivers were later arrested – but many others are thought to have got away.
Earlier Monday scores of protesters faced a gauntlet of batons from Hong Kong's bruising riot cops as they made a dash along another bridge.
READ: Catapults, flaming arrows: Hong Kong police face new weapons in street violence
Some escaped but images showed those Read More – Source