Hong Kong protests: residents turn out in force to clear roads near university campuses after five days of traffic mayhem

Hong Kong residents turned out in force on Saturday to clear bricks and other blockages from main roads near some of the city’s university campuses, after five straight days of escalated protest action and traffic mayhem.

Heeding online calls from some pro-establishment figures, hundreds of people dismantled barricades built with metal railings, bricks and other obstacles and placed them on pavements and in trucks near Hong Kong, Baptist, Chinese and Polytechnic universities.

The clear-up was punctuated by several tense moments. Arguments and minor scuffles broke out between black-clad protesters and those clearing Pok Fu Lam Road outside the University of Hong Kong.

At about 3.45pm, around a dozen protesters sat in front of one of the barricades, which residents dismantled around them, but they later retreated to overpasses linked to the university, heckling the clearers and at one point throwing several burning objects onto the road.

In Kowloon Tong, near Baptist University, about 50 soldiers, many dressed in green T-shirts and black shorts, from the People’s Liberation Army’s barracks marched out at about 4.30pm and joined pro-government supporters to help remove roadblocks and reopen Renfrew Road and Hereford Road.