Hong Kong at the Brink of a Total Breakdown

Hong Kong has been hit with another day of turmoil Tuesday after a man was shot by a police officer and another set alight following a confrontation with protesters in one of the most dramatic days in over five months of protests.

Some universities and schools shut Tuesday as protesters and riot police faced off around the Asian financial hub. By 8 a.m. police had already fired tear gas on the city's streets.

At midday Tuesday, a few thousand people -- including office workers and black-clad protesters -- brought traffic to a standstill by occupying a major intersection in Central, the city's business district. In the afternoon, police fired multiple rounds of tear gas and detained about a dozen people.

Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in Hong Kong's New Territories also became a major flashpoint Tuesday. In the morning, protesters set up barricades and a collection of bows and arrows were spotted piled nearby. By the afternoon, tensions flared between police and protesters, with police firing tear gas as protesters threw petrol bombs, causing an empty car to go up in flames.

At both Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Hum, "masked rioters" dropped bricks from a footbridge, police spokesman Kong Wing-cheung said during a press conference Tuesday afternoon. From another footbridge near the University of Hong Kong, "rioters" threw chairs and traffic cones at the traffic below, he said.

Kong said society had been "pushed to the brink of a total breakdown" over the past two days -- and said if anyone who was still making excuses for protesters' violence, they needed to "do some soul-searching."

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