Escalating violence during mass demonstrations in Hong Kong is fuelling perceptions the territory has become “a riskier place”, the American Chamber of Commerce warned on Monday, a day after police and protesters fought running battles around the city’s central business district.

After nearly two months of anti-government demonstrations, the territory’s administration should defuse the tensions by conceding to some of the protesters’ key demands, the US business representative group said in an unusually blunt statement.

AmCham said a survey of US businesses in the territory revealed that members thought the government should withdraw an extradition bill that sparked the first mass protests and which, if passed, would allow criminal suspects to be sent to China for trial. While the government has suspended the proposed legislation, pro-democracy groups want the full withdraw the bill.