Residents Come Out To Clear Roads Near Universities

Groups of residents were clearing bricks and debris from roads and tearing down barricades near universities on Saturday, with the black-clad protesters who set up the blockades absent from some locations.

Around 20 people were removing the hundreds of bricks scattered across Junction Road in Kowloon Tong, which had brought traffic to a standstill near the Baptist University campus and PLA barracks since Wednesday.

The group, who said they were residents of the area, also dismantled huge bamboo barricades, as well a two-metre tall yellow barrier covered in graffiti.

No protesters or students were seen in the area.

The bricks had been dug up from paths along the road and had been turned into various structures, with one mocking the Chinese name of Chief Executive Carrie Lam.

One of those helping to clean up the site, Leo, said protesters should not have blocked access to Baptist Hospital.

"We are just normal citizens. We seek to clean the road because we all know this is a hospital. I mean, as much as I respect what they are trying to do, they should respect people's lives as well. People's lives are at stake...what they're doing is just completely against what they are trying to fight for," he told RTHK.

Some members of the group were not so happy to see journalists taking photos of the clean-up efforts and said the media would not report on their efforts fairly.

Meanwhile, a similar clean-up was also seen at the Chinese University campus in Sha Tin, with some students and alumni bringing brooms and gloves along to help them remove debris from the roads there.

A clean-up at the University of Hong Kong wasn't going as smoothly, however, with footage showing some black-clad protesters arguing with those doing the clearing away.

At Kowloon Tong, meanwhile, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at barricades on Cornwall Street near the City University students' residence, as black-clad protesters confronted a group of people who were attempting to clear the road of obstacles.

The protesters traded insults with the other group, who were pushed back by firefighters, before the Molotov cocktail was thrown and the protesters retreated.

Riot police soon arrived to guard the area.

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