'Little kittens': Hong Kong campus protest holdouts left isolated and fearful

"CHAOTIC STATE"

On the once-bustling campus, now eerily silent, flies buzz around mountains of waste. The ground is littered with unused petrol bombs and tear gas canisters, the debris of last week's occupation. Water leaks from the roof of the smashed-up library and alarm bells ring through deserted halls.

"Currently the campus is in a chaotic state, with debris, petrol bombs and dangerous chemicals scattered around the campus, which pose a considerable threat to personal safety," the university said in a statement on Monday.

Police, who have arrested around 1,000 people during the siege, are maintaining high plastic barricades and a fence around the perimeter of the campus.

Over the weekend, several Christian pastors toured the grounds after nightfall, past buildings spray-tagged with the slogan "Liberty or death". One group played guitar and sang.

But the presence of strangers has alarmed some protesters, who suspect undercover police may be among them.

"They are loners now, those who are left behind," said Reverend Youngman Chan, as he looked for students to console. "They call them 'little kittens', kittens are so fearful of people ... they hear you coming, they just disappear."

Some have stopped coming to look for food, supplies of which are diminishing, Norym said.

"It is a closed system," he said. "If more food doesn't come in, the food here is the food here."

Still, he vowed to remain until the last protester had left. "Sometimes, some things have to be done by someone," he said.