{"id":41604,"date":"2019-11-17T13:22:17","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T13:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41604"},"modified":"2019-11-17T13:22:17","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T13:22:17","slug":"hk-police-fire-tear-gas-as-protesters-injure-officer-with-arrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41604","title":{"rendered":"HK police fire tear gas as protesters injure officer with arrow"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Hong Kong<\/a> police officer has been hit in the leg by an arrow as authorities used tear gas and water cannon to drive away protesters occupying a university campus and blocking a major road tunnel under the city’s harbour.<\/p>\n

The clashes on Sunday came after a day of relative calm that followed one of the most violent weeks\u00a0in more than five months of anti-government unrest in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.<\/span><\/p>\n

More:<\/h4>\n

Police said the arrow struck a media liaison officer and he was taken to a hospital. Photos on the department’s Facebook page show the arrow sticking out of the back of the officer’s lower leg through his pants.<\/span><\/p>\n

Al Jazeera’s Divya Gopalan, reporting from Hong Kong, said the university and its surroundings is the last stand of the protesters.<\/p>\n

“This is where the protesters still feel that they can send a message to the government that they are able to stop the city from functioning normally and disrupt the city,” she said.<\/p>\n

The pro-democracy protesters held their ground for most of the day, as water cannon trucks drove over bricks and nails strewn by demonstrators to spray them at close range.<\/p>\n

They began retreating into Hong Kong Polytechnic University near sunset, fearing they would be trapped as police fired tear gas volleys and approached from the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

New tactics<\/h2>\n

In the university courtyard, civil engineer Joris, 23, said he was prepared to go to jail in his fight against the government. Those shooting arrows were protecting themselves, he said.<\/p>\n

“The police violence has been over the top,” he told Reuters news agency. “The protesters have been reacting to the police. We haven’t fought back as much as we could. I would be prepared for jail. We are fighting for Hong Kong.”<\/p>\n

Reuters reported that a high-pitched wailing came from at least one police vehicle, suggesting a new tactic to try to clear the crowds. Police confirmed the use\u00a0of a “long-range acoustic device”.<\/p>\n

Chinese soldiers in a base close to the university were seen monitoring developments with binoculars, some dressed in riot gear with canisters on their chests.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Saturday, troops belonging to China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA)\u00a0<\/span>briefly left their barracks<\/a> to help Hong Kong residents clean up debris left by demonstrators, in a move that\u00a0could stoke further controversy over the city’s status.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since early June, Hong Kong has been rocked by\u00a0protests<\/a>\u00a0triggered by a bill that would have allowed the extradition of accused individuals to mainland China<\/a> to stand trial.<\/p>\n

Although the proposed law has now been withdrawn, public anger has been driven by the authorities’ refusal to address protesters’ demands for an independent inquiry against alleged police brutality; amnesty for the nearly 600 people charged with offences stemming from the protests; a retraction of police claims that protesters are guilty of rioting; and universal suffrage to elect the full legislature and chief executive.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, calls for disbanding, or at least reorganising, the police force have grown out of public anger, with critics alleging indiscriminate and rampant use of force.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Protesters<\/div>\n

\u00a0The protesters held their ground for most of the day\u00a0<\/span>[Adnan Abidi\/Reuters]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Hong Kong police officer has been hit in the leg by an arrow as authorities used tear gas and water cannon to drive away protesters occupying a university campus and blocking a major road tunnel under the city’s harbour. The clashes on Sunday came after a day of relative calm that followed one of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":41605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}