TRIBAL WARS
Hong Kong protesters fire flaming bows and arrows and javelins at cops as China threatens to send in troops
PROTESTERS in Hong Kong fired flaming bows and javelins at riot cops as "murderous" clashes continued overnight.
Demonstrators armed with bows and arrows launched their blazing weapons on the Chinese University of Hong Kong - as China threatened to send in troops to deal with the escalating violence.
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Shocking photos also show activists setting fire to a metro train in the latest episode after months of brutal battles in the city.
While a disturbing video captures the moment a woman was surrounded and savagely beaten by masked protesters.
The terrifying scenes come as the riots took a sinister turn this week in a spate of horror attacks that saw a heavily pregnant woman pepper-sprayed in the face, a police officer shot at close range and a man doused with petrol and set on fire by demonstrators.
In new footage, a woman is seen trying to walk away, only to be thrown to the ground by a rioter, who then uses what appears to be a metal rod to beat her over the head.
The helpless woman then crouches on the pavement as blood trickles down her face.
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As a journalists helps her to her feet, rioters pounce again, hitting her with their rods before a man steps in and shields her with his body.
As the violence continued, protesters near the University of Hong Kong campus threw chairs and traffic cones from a footbridge on to moving traffic below, injuring a motorbike rider in a move branded "murderous" by police.
Officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets during overnight rioting that prompted scores of students to flee to mainland China.
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Hong Kong mob savagely beats woman with metal poles in horrific video
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Students, furious over police encroachment, set up barricades shortly after dawn yesterday.
Riot cops fired their first rounds of tear gas before 8 am.
Students at the Polytechnic University were seen throwing rubbish bins from a footbridge.
At City University, students chopped down trees to make barricades, while others at the Chinese University smashed into a sports equipment warehouse and took bows, arrows and javelins.
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They set up a defence line of umbrellas and stadium seats, emerging from behind it to throw petrol bombs at police.
Officers responded by firing tear gas.
'BRINK OF BREAKDOWN'
Police said Hong Kong was on the "brink of total breakdown".
On Tuesday police said the protesters had committed "insane" acts, throwing trash, bicycles and other debris on to metro tracks and overhead power lines.
Senior Superintendent Kong Wing-cheung told a briefing yesterday: "Our society has been pushed to the brink of a total breakdown."
With more than 260 people arrested on Monday alone, the total number of those arrested by police since the action kicked off in June has risen to about 3,560.
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Why are people protesting in Hong Kong?
The protests in Hong Kong began in June, over a proposed law.
The new rule would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China.
Activists saw the bill as another sign of an erosion in Hong Kong's autonomy and civic freedoms.
China had promised that Hong Kong would be maintained for 50 years under a "one nation, two systems" principle.
This pledge was made when the former British colony was returned to Chinese control in 1997.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam eventually withdrew the extradition bill.
She says protesters are being 'selfish'.
The US has condemned "unjustified use of deadly force".
It's urged demonstrators and police to calm down, and de-escalate the situation.
But speaking from Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang urged Britain and America not to intrude.
China has a garrison of up to 12,000 troops in Hong Kong.
While they've been kept to barracks since 1997, China has threatened it will crush any attempts at independence - a demand for a minority of protesters.
Those demonstrating have called upon Hong Kong's politicians to stop labelling them as rioters.
Plus they want criminal cases to be dropped against activists.
China has a garrison of up to 12,000 troops in Hong Kong.
They have kept to barracks since 1997 but Beijing has said that it will crush any attempt at independence, one of the demands being made by a small minority of protesters.
Hu Xinjing, editor-in-chief of the Global Times, the Communist Party mouthpiece, dismissed the protesters as “post-autumn grasshoppers” whose days were numbered before the winter sets in.
“Hong Kong is part of the Chinese land, and the country has enough power and determination to ensure Hong Kong will return to order,” he wrote on social media, noting that armed Chinese police on the mainland could reach rioters within “tens of minutes”.
Chinese police on the mainland could reach rioters within tens of minutes
Hu Xinjing
He added: “If rioters should escalate their challenge, leading to more severe, more prevalent disorder and humanitarian disasters, it’s inevitable that the state will intervene.”
At a police press conference yesterday reporters were shown an image of a student protester at the Chinese University drawing a bow.
The university said that all the stolen sports items had been recovered but police said later that arrows had been fired at officers.
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Superintendent Kong said that officers had become fearful of their personal safety. Rather than backing off, some protesters were likely to confront police when guns were drawn, he said.
He added that the incident on Monday in which a 57-year-old man was set on fire by protesters was being investigated as an attempted murder, although no arrests had been made.
The victim, who had angered protesters by criticising their actions, remains in a coma with severe burns.
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