Hong Kong, Dec 2 (IANS/EFE): The three co-founders of the Occupy Central movement (OCLP) of the ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong Tuesday asked students to retreat from occupied areas and announced that they would surrender to the police.

"For the sake of the occupiers' safety, for the sake of our original intention of love and peace, as we prepare to surrender, we three urge the students to retreat, to put down deep roots in the community and transform the movement," Occupy Central leader Benny Tai said.

The leaders said they would turn themselves in Wednesday.

"We don't know what will happen after we hand ourselves in, whether we will be detained or released, but we are prepared for the consequences," said Tai, along with Reverend Chu Yiu-ming and Chan Kin-man, the other two main leaders of the OCLP movement.

The three expressed their willingness to face the legal consequences of having launched the civil disobedience campaign a little over two months ago.

The announcement contradicts the call made by Scholarism and the Federation of Students, two organisations at the forefront of the protests, of stepping up demonstrations after a thwarted attempt to encircle government buildings that left several injured and arrested.

It also comes a day after Scholarism group leader Joshua Wong announced a hunger strike in a bid to put more pressure on the government.

"I am deeply sorrowful for the violence inflicted on the protesters but I am proud of our students, of our citizens. This is an awakening," Chu said.

"The form of civil disobedience has changed from what we envisaged but we are confident most protesters can maintain peaceful non-violence," Tai said.

OCLP was founded in early 2013 as a campaign to mobilise 10,000 people to block roads in Hong Kong if the local and central governments did not commit to introducing universal suffrage without restrictions for Hong Kong.