HK fire victim still in critical condition

At least six universities announced the suspension of classes on Wednesday.

More than 100 black-clad protesters barricaded a road near the Chinese University of Hong Kong and confronted police. They then challenged the police cordon, despite mediation by university staff members. Multiple fires were seen on campus, including a burned-out car in the middle of the road. Police fired several rounds of tear gas and arrested three protesters.

In the morning, a group of people broke into a storehouse in a sports stadium at CUHK and took away bows, arrows and javelins with metallic arrowheads. The equipment that was known to have been taken was retrieved, according to a statement from the university.

Another group of protesters gathered on a footbridge leading to City University of Hong Kong and threw bricks and other objects onto the streets. Police dispersed the area with tear gas.

It is legitimate for the police to take action on campus in accordance with the law, in bid to prevent any areas in the city becoming shelters for lawbreakers, a police spokesman said on Tuesday.

More than 60 percent of the 287 people arrested on Monday were students, according to the police.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, at a regular press briefing before the Executive Council meets, condemned the radicals' action of paralyzing traffic as "extremely selfish". Their intention was to force a citywide shutdown, Lam said.

Lam conveyed her respect for Hong Kong people who kept going to work and school despite the adverse traffic situation. She also expressed gratitude to the people of Hong Kong who voluntarily cleaned up the debris on roads, saying they "injected positive energy" into the chaos experienced by the city.

A group of the city's pro-establishment legislators on Tuesday made their strongest condemnation against rioters' brutal, widespread violence.

Meeting members of the media as radicals vandalized the city's Central business district, the lawmakers also urged the government to establish an intergovernmental task force to end the rampant violence that has been haunting the city for more than five months.

The group called on everyone in the community to stop embellishing violence that has "lost rationality and humanity" and to support the government in law-enforcement actions to restore the city's law and order.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Commissioner's Office of the Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said that the brutal action of black-clad rioters in Hong Kong is "no different from terrorism".