Hong Kong police making efforts to reopen carriageway near university blocked by rioters

HONG KONG -- The Hong Kong police said on Friday they are making immense efforts to reopen a carriageway near the Chinese University of Hong Kong that has been blocked by rioters for over 60 hours.

The police also urged the CUHK to help restore social stability and road safety.

For days, rioters have been inflicting extensive damage to various districts and blocking multiple key public routes and harbor-crossing facilities in Hong Kong, posing a serious threat to public safety and order.

As of 10 am on Friday, Tolo Highway near the CUHK has been maliciously blocked for over 60 hours, seriously obstructing emergency services and movement of residents in the New Territories, the police said.

Rioters claimed they would reopen part of the southbound and northbound Tolo Highway at around 6 a.m. on Friday to facilitate temporary resumption of traffic, but the highway remained blocked by miscellaneous objects and shattered glass, posing a serious threat to road users' safety, according to the police.

When the relevant government departments attempted to clear the debris on the highway, some rioters used bows, arrows and other hard objects to intimidate the contract workers.

"Since the highway is still filled with hard objects and devoid of any road signs or traffic cones, reopening the road would certainly cause danger to road users," the police pointed out.

To protect the safety of citizens and road users, the police said they are making immense effort to liaise with other government departments to remove the debris in a bid to resume normal traffic as soon as possible.

Masked rioters started to wreck havoc to the CUHK campus in Sha Tin in the New Territories on Monday, and have kept dropping objects from a bridge over Tolo Highway to obstruct traffic on the carriageway.

Police officers were deployed to guard the bridge on Monday and Tuesday to protect public safety, but were violently charged by rioters gathering on the campus. Representatives of the CUHK asked the police to retreat out of the campus and for multiple times promised they would arrange for the rioters to retreat.

The police on Friday expressed deep regret that the rioters continue to paralyze transport network and blatantly disregard public concern, and once again appealed to the CUHK to keep their promise and help restore social stability and road safety.