Foreign Students Including Mainland Chinese Students Were Evacuating as Unrest Shifts to Universities

Dozens of foreign students have been urged to leave Hong Kong after another night of clashes left several people seriously injured.

A worker for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, struck by an object thrown by protesters earlier on Wednesday, was in critical condition, according to the government. A 15-year-old believed to have been hit in the head by a tear-gas canister has reportedly suffered a skull fracture.

A man dressed in black and around the age of 30 was found dead in Tsuen Wan in Hong Kong’s New Territories, according to police who said he appeared to have fallen from a building.

On Thursday, foreign students including mainland Chinese students were evacuating Hong Kong after several universities emerged as battlegrounds as protesters tried to prevent police from storming their campuses.

Several Nordic students at Hong Kong Baptist University were being moved after anti-government demonstrators moved on to its grounds, and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) urged its 36 students in Hong Kong to return home.

Student Elina Neverdal Hjoennevaag told the Norwegian broadcaster NRK on Wednesday they were being sent to a hotel, adding: “I don’t really know what is happening. I must pack.”

She said she and several other exchange students were told to pack and move away, saying: “People walked out with their suitcases. Many cried.”

The Norwegian foreign ministry said on its website that “students should continuously evaluate campus safety if teaching is interrupted due to protests”.

Anders Overgaard Bjarklev, the head of DTU, said the decision to move came after some of the riots shifted to the campuses and “some of our students have been forced to move from their dormitories because they were put on fire”.

DTU would also resolve “any academic challenges associated with the interrupted course”.

Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, issued a statement calling on police and protesters to “exercise restraint and take steps to de-escalate tensions”.

“It is essential that the police respond proportionately to protests,” Payne said in a statement.

Read here