HONG KONG (NBC) – Hundreds of protesting Hong Kong students are trapped by police at a university Monday after police stormed the campus overnight.
Fires are still burning on the campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic where thousands of students gathered before water cannon and tear gas forced most of the students to leave. Students ran a gauntlet of tear gas and arrest to escape from the school.
Students outside the school battled police as a diversion to allow students inside the school to escape.
Protesters in the school washed their wounds and made Molotov cocktail gas bombs.
At dusk, students began a protest to free the students inside the campus. They were met with rows of riot police, tear gas and water cannon.
The protests began when the Hong Kong government proposed an extradition treaty with China that would allow people accused of a crime to be sent to the China mainland.
Hong Kong sees itself as a separate city-state from China.
The extradition proposal was eventually withdrawn but demonstrations changed to broader anti-government protest including police brutality protests.
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