Many office workers left earlier than normal while schools and half the shops on Lockhart Road remained shut.

"Our boss told us to leave at four, because we heard the news that the protesters had jumped into the sea and that the police used pepper spray to cope with the violence," said Lucy Lo, an administrative assistant who works in the China Resources Building, a five- minute walk from the Convention and Exhibition Centre.

ADVERTISEMENT

Alan Lee, who works for the Immigration Department at its headquarters, was running to the MTR station at 4.30pm. "I am so terrified," he said.

Several of Lee's colleagues took leave this week in an attempt to avoid being caught up in any violent protests. "We also bought and stored food in the office in case we could not leave."

At Ada Snacks, at the crossroads between Lockhart Road and O'Brien Road, it was business as usual but shopkeeper Mandy Jim said she would close the shop earlier because business was down 50 percent from Sunday.

"Some of my clients even left at one o'clock to avoid the protest," she said, adding the number of pedestrians had halved and that those still on the streets were very nervous.

"There are no more students on the streets either," said Jim. About 95 percent of Wan Chai's 80 schools were closed, according to the Education and Manpower Bureau.

Dicky Leung, manager of Tai Lee Electrical on Lockhart Road, said Wan Chai had been turned into a "ghost town" by the WTO conference.

"The WTO makes workers less well off, wastes public funds and police resources, but doesn't benefit Hong Kong at all," he said.

But one newspaper vendor, who gave his name as Kong, said that his business was doing fine.

"The Korean farmers also have to kill time while waiting for the protest, so they bought many magazines from me. Some of them are pornography."