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Protesters try to leave Hong Kong campus but avoid arrest

Nov 17, 2019 | 10:16 PM

HONG KONG — For days, Hong Kong’s protesters fortified a university campus to keep police from getting in. Now, cornered by authorities, they are trying to get out.

Officers repelled one attempt Monday morning with tear gas, driving a few hundred protesters back into the Hong Kong Polytechnic campus.

The protesters want to avoid arrest. The police have set up a dragnet around the campus to pick up as many as they can.

It’s a game that has played out repeatedly during the city’s months of anti-government unrest. Protesters cause disruption, then try to melt away before police run in to grab as many as they can.