Foreign students start to leave as unrest shifts to universities of Hong Kong

After another night of clashes left several people seriously injured dozens of foreign students have urged to leave Hong Kong.

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”.

Police on Tuesday raided the Chinese University of Hong Kong, setting off violent clashes. The university remained barricaded by demonstrators on Thursday, with roadblocks and brick walls at the school's various entrances. Protesters also occupied a bridge that leads to the campus.

Police have accused the university of being a “manufacturing base for petrol bombs and a refuge for rioters and criminals” after some protesters fired burning arrows – taken from the university sports center – at officers and threw 400 petrol bombs. Police fired more than 1,500 rounds of tear gas and more than 1,300 rubber bullets at the demonstrators. The city was paralysed, with much of its public transport suspended and all universities closed.