Protesters trickle out of besieged Hong Kong university

DALE DE LA REY / AFP

At least eight protesters who had been holding out at a university in Hong Kong have surrendered to police.

Many others are searching for escape routes as riot officers surrounded the campus of the Polytechnic University in Kowloon.

Hong Kong’s police chief has urged the demonstrators to leave, saying that he hoped for a peaceful resolution to the standoff. 

He added that there was no deadline for dealing with those barricaded inside.

The number of protesters has dropped to fewer than 100, days after some of the worst violence since anti-government demonstrations intensified in June.

Demonstrators are angry at what they see as China's meddling in freedoms promised to Hong Kong when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

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