Steve Vick­ers, a for­mer head of crim­i­nal intel­li­gence for the Roy­al Hong Kong Police, pre­dict­ed a severe gov­ern­ment crack­down that will result in long jail terms.

He said: ​‘I am per­son­al­ly sym­pa­thet­ic to the great major­i­ty of the Hong Kong demon­stra­tors and their moti­va­tion, but the hard­core ele­ments and agi­ta­tors involved are becom­ing increas­ing­ly desperate.

‘Their actions are coun­ter­pro­duc­tive to many Hong Kong peo­ple’s gen­uine demo­c­ra­t­ic aspirations.’