Hong Kong hospitals flooded by injured PolyU protesters

Bloomberg

Hong Kong hospitals were overwhelmed with injured protesters who evacuated from a university campus after a standoff with police that’s transfixed the city, as schools were due to reopen following days of chaos in the financial hub.
Leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that she wanted a peaceful end to the showdown between protesters and police at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) that’s persisted since this weekend, as evacuations began for remaining demonstrators trapped inside. The school has appealed to police to not enter its campus for the time being so that people are given a chance to leave in a peaceful and orderly manner.
Police said on Tuesday that they fired more than 1,400 tear gas volleys the previous day amid battles with protesters. As the city’s college campuses became focal points for unrest in recent days, its primary and secondary schools have remained closed since Thursday.
Demonstrations seeking greater democracy in the Beijing-controlled territory have become increasingly violent in recent weeks, with protesters vandalising transportation networks and China-friendly
businesses as they push for demands including an independent probe into police violence and the ability to nominate and elect city leaders.
PolyU has requested that police not enter its campus for the time being so that people who remain can be given the chance to leave in a peaceful and orderly manner, according to a statement on the school’s website.
Police fired 1,458 rounds of tear gas, 1,391 rubber bullets, 325 bean bag rounds and 265 sponge grenades on November 18, police Senior Superintendent Kong Wing-cheung said at the force’s daily briefing. The police have also arrested or recorded personal data of 1,100 people at PolyU or in its vicinity as of 3 pm on Tuesday, Chief Superintendent Kwok Ka-chuen said at the same briefing.
Kwok said that some 600 people who evacuated the campus overnight did so voluntarily and that most weren’t students of the university. He reiterated Lam’s hope for a peaceful resolution, echoing her earlier comment that such an outcome was up to the “rioters.”
Some 280 people coming out of PolyU have been admitted to public hospitals across Hong Kong, police officials said at the daily briefing. Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority urged people to visit out-patient clinics or private doctors barring serious illness or injury, as the Accident and Emergency departments of public hospitals were overwhelmed by the influx.
A group of 50 protesters has emerged from besieged Hong Kong Polytechnic University after hundreds of their peers were evacuated overnight, the South China Morning Post reported — half of the 100 who were thought to remain inside.