As school pupils form human chains, two attack incidents

As students and alumni at secondary schools continued to stage human-chain protests to press the government to accept all the five demands of anti-extradition bill activists, there were at least two incidents so far this week wherein the school protest activities were targeted for violent attacks.

On Monday morning, students and alumni of Cognitio College (Kowloon) formed a human chain, joining counterparts in many other secondary schools to send a message to authorities that they should concede to the other four demands of the public after withdrawing the extradition bill.

While they were expressing their views, a man came at them and made threatening gestures while wielding a box-cutter, sending teachers and passers-by into a tizzy to stop him.

The man, who was wearing nothing expect for a pair of blue shorts, fled the scene after a few tense moments of confrontation and angry words.

No students were hurt in the incident, but a teacher saw her hand getting injured as she tried to intervene and protect the students.

The teacher was sent to hospital, where she was in stable condition.

The school reported the matter to the police afterwards, and the case, for the time being, has been listed as wounding, following an initial investigation.

On Monday night, the police arrested a 65-year-old man in connection with the wounding incident. The person was taken into custody at Kai Ching Estate, a public rental housing estate in Kowloon City, and a probe is underway.

In another incident, there was an attack at the intersection of Tai Kok Tsui Road and Ivy Street in Kowloon, where a human chain was formed by students and alumni of six secondary schools in the area.

As they were standing along the sidewalk, a resident in the neighborhood, apparently unhappy with the anti-government protest, shouted at them before concrete was thrown down from high above.

Two people ended up with injuries. One of them was a secondary school student who suffered a leg injury but didn't need to be sent to hospital, while the other was an alumnus from Po Leung Kuk Vicwood K. T. Chong Sixth Form College, who suffered a hand injury and had to be taken to hospital.

In other news, more than 100 students and alumni of Carmel Pak U Secondary School in Tai Po went to a police station Monday morning to file a complaint that one of its Secondary Six students was beaten in the head by police with a baton after he was apprehended in Tai Po Market MTR Station last Saturday.

Several of the school’s students were also arrested on the day when the police stormed the MTR station. The students were later released on bail.

Among other developments, students from the Hong Kong Baptist University and the City University of Hong Kong formed a human chain linking the two institutions in Kowloon Tong on Monday afternoon, with the line stretching as long as two kilometers.

Some of the students held placards that read “Five demands, not one less”. Also, they passed along items such as a yellow helmet to highlight their common stance.

They urged the government to meet all five demands by the preset deadline of Friday, when people will mark the Mid-Autumn Festival.

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TL/JC/RC