University becomes focal point of renewed Hong Kong protests as student demonstrators test petrol bombs in pool

  • Video report by ITV News Senior International Correspondent John Irvine

At one of Hong Kong's main universities, several students have spent the day drilling into raw eggs to replace the yolk and white with thick red paint.

Protesters are weaponising eggshells to try to temporarily blind police officers by throwing them at their visors.

Elsewhere on campus they have been testing petrol bombs by throwing them into the empty Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Demonstrators are filling eggs with paint to throw at police visors. Credit: AP

The university has been turned into a heavily-defended fortress and a tour leaves you in no doubt that, more than five months on, demonstrators remain fully committed to their cause.

The student bastion is in Kowloon, strategically located beside the main road tunnel that connects Hong Kong island.

Protests come after an alleged attack on a Hong Kong government official in London. Credit: Twitter/JanetHYPang1

The tunnel and the roads leading to it remain closed because of barricades, bricks and home made tyre traps (nails poking out of small lengths of hose).

At the university, the gym is now a dormitory while other rooms in the sports centre have been turned into a hospital.

Public donations mean the students have plentiful food and first aid supplies.

Jonathan, an 18-year-old medical student told me he had to treat a protester hit with shotgun pellets.

The entrance to the main tunnel connecting Kowloon and Hong Kong island (seen in the background). Credit: John Irvine

A movement that began with peaceful million-people demonstrations has lost some of its dignity.

The protesters would tell you that police brutality has forced them to wage urban warfare.

Whatever the reasons, Hong Kong’s descent remains unchecked.