Hong Kong’s government has not ruled out calling a state of emergency across the territory, its deputy leader signalled on Monday, as China’s state news agency warned that “the end is coming” for the increasingly violent protesters it said were trying to disrupt the city.

The announcements came as tens of thousands of high school and university students boycotted class on Monday and riot police patrolled subway stations following a weekend of some of the most intense clashes yet between protesters and security forces in Hong Kong’s nearly three-month-old political crisis. 

The government could invoke the territory’s Emergency Regulations Ordinance, a colonial-era law that gives the government sweeping powers and would allow easier arrests, detentions, deportations and internet censorship.