Dozens of exhausted pro-democracy protesters occupying a Hong Kong university defied warnings to surrender Tuesday on the third day of a potentially deadly stand-off with police, as China sent fresh signals that its patience with nearly six months of unrest was running out.
Fearing arrest or being shot at by police, a dwindling number of protesters remained huddled inside Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) as night fell.
Some protesters escaped overnight on Monday by shinning down ropes from a footbridge to a road, where they were whisked away on motorbikes.
Others disappeared into manholes to try to probe the drainage system for a route out.
In an apparently co-ordinated effort to distract police, tens of thousands of people streamed towards the PolyU campus on Monday night as clashes simultaneously raged with police in nearby Kowloon district.
New phase of violence
Footage on Monday showed armoured police beating fallen protesters with batons as they lay on the ground.
One officer was filmed stamping on the head of a man who was already subdued.
Alleged police brutality is one of the central complaints of the protest movement. Senior officers insist their men are acting proportionately.
In her first public comments on the PolyU crisis, Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said surrender was the only way to achieve a peaceful outcome.
"This objective could only be achieved with the full cooperation of the protesters
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