Hong Kong’s embattled government faced renewed pressure on Nov. 27 to end a 10-day police siege of a university. A major tunnel near the campus reopened, and search teams found no evidence of any protesters still holding out.
A near two-week siege of Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University may be over, but the clean-up is only just beginning.
A final sweep of the campus on Wednesday appeared to suggest protesters had all gone.
Police were still on guard at the campus perimeter.
Dr. Miranda Lou, the university’s executive vice president, asked police to retreat so that a cleanup operation can begin.
“The university has put together all our efforts and tried our best to resolve the issue as soon as possible,” Lou said. “The university requests that the police remove the cordon around our campus immediately so that we can start our restoration work at once.”
Police had no immediate comment.
The red-brick university on the Kowloon peninsula was turned into a battleground in mid-November when protesters barricaded themselves inside.
Some 1,100 protesters have left or were arrested by police.
Despite the euphoria among protesters over the electoral victory, fresh demonstrations were planned for the weekend.
A “Thanksgiving” protest, in appreciation of the U.S. Congress passing legislation supporting Hong Kong protesters, is scheduled for Thursday.
