Update from SCMP

Hardcore mobs upped their violent game when they took over tertiary campuses last week, as bureaucrats came under fire for doing little and the police warned the city was on the brink of total breakdown.

In the north, radicals occupying Chinese University took over the Tolo Highway.

At Polytechnic University, they have shut down the Cross-Harbour Tunnel for five days, the longest forced closure ever.

The mobs broke into the campuses’ chemical laboratories and set up petrol bomb mills overnight and practised throwing fire bombs with catapults and arrows.

Fiery battles between protesters and police spread across several universities, as mainland and international students evacuated.

The radicals finally withdrew, except at PolyU where a stand-off continues as I write this.

Last week, the People’s Liberation Army soldiers took to the streets with brooms – not guns – to clean up, as did volunteers fed-up with the violence and their pockmarked streets.

We still don’t see an end in sight.

Follow our coverage at scmp.com.

Zuraidah Ibrahim,
Deputy Executive Editor