Hong Kong:
anger mounts after police shoot demonstrator during morning rush hour
Protester
shot in chest in critical condition as police fire tear gas and pepper spray on
demonstrators
Lily Kuo
Mon 11 Nov
2019 02.30 GMTLast modified on Mon 11 Nov 2019 06.00 GMT
Hong Kong
police shot at least one protester on Monday during rush hour as
anti-government demonstrators blocked roads and clashed with police throughout
the city.
In video
captured by local media, a police officer struggling to subdue a protester
fired three live rounds at demonstrators in Sai Wan Ho in northeastern Hong
Kong. One demonstrator, who did not appear to be armed, was shot at point-blank
range in the torso and crumpled to the ground.
The
protester lay on the ground in a pool of blood as police cuffed his hands
behind his back. He appeared to be conscious and later attempted to run from
police but was quickly caught.
In a
statement, the government confirmed that a police officer had discharged his
service revolver and that a man had been shot. Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority
said that it had received one patient with a gunshot wound, a 21 year old, who
as of 10am local time remained in critical condition. Local media reported that
the demonstrator had undergone surgery.
The video,
taken by Cupid Producer, was circulated widely online after protesters blocked
roads and public transit stations during the morning rush hour. Protesters have
called for a day of strikes, following the death of a student protester on
Friday who fell from a car park during a demonstration.
The
shooting has escalated already high tensions as skirmishes broke out in chaotic
scenes throughout Hong Kong on Monday. The police fired tear gas and pepper
spray and aimed their firearms at residents and demonstrators in multiple
locations as protesters blocked roads, lit fires, and hurled objects at police.
Defending
the use of firearms, the government said: “Police has strict guidelines and
orders regarding the use of firearms. All police officers are required to
justify their enforcement actions.”
In Sai Wan
Ho, a woman rushed at the police just after the shooting and was subdued as a
crowd of residents shouted at the officers, calling them “murderers,” and threw
plastic crates at them. The police fired pepper spray at the angry crowd.
“Hong Kong
police gone nuts,” pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo wrote on Twitter alongside
a video appearing to show a motorcycle policeman driving straight at
protesters. “They seem to truly think they’re above the law. This has been
almost like Tiananmen Square in slow motion.”
Others
criticised how police handled the injured demonstrators, turning over one who
was laying face down
Ray Chan
✔
@ray_slowbeat
The unarmed
young man shot in the abdomen is an alumnus of Salesian School on #HongKong
Island, the high school I went to. Is this the proper way to handle a casualty
who is likely to suffer from internal organ lacerations and crushed veins?
#SaiWanHo #HongKongProtests #FreedomHK
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At
Polytechnic University in Hung Hom, police fired tear gas at protesters who
were throwing petrol bombs from a footbridge. At the Chinese University in
Shatin, police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators. In Wong Tai Sin,
protesters dug up bricks and threw them onto a main road to block traffic.
Earlier,
police said protesters had blocked the Cross Harbour Tunnel, linking Kowloon to
Hung Hom, and had lit fires in Shatin and Tuen Mun, obstructing traffic.
Several mass transit railway (MTR) lines were delayed or suspended as some
protesters were seen smashing gates at MTR stations.
At least
two universities have cancelled classes for the day. By the early afternoon,
protesters had gathered in central Hong Kong, facing off with riot police with
their umbrellas.
Monday
marks the third time police have shot demonstrators with live rounds. In the
two previous cases the police claimed they fired in self defence and the
demonstrators, who were both teenagers, recovered.
Hong Kong
is facing its most serious political crisis in decades as protests, initially
over an extradition bill that would send suspects to mainland China, have taken
on new demands, chief among them an independent investigation into alleged
police brutality.
Public mistrust
of the police has reached a new level, following the death on Friday of a
22-year old demonstrator who succumbed to injuries sustained earlier in the
week when he fell one storey in a car park during a protest. In the days after
his death, demonstrators vandalised restaurants and stores seen by protesters
as pro-government, hurled petrol bombs and bricks a police and a police
station.
Experts
believe today’s shooting in addition to the death of the protester on Friday
has raised the stakes of the protest movement now entering its sixth month.
“With this
televised shooting of an unarmed protesters point blank … the militant
protesters would believe more firmly they have to fight back by any means
necessary, and the public opinion will be further against the police and the
government,” said Ho-Fung Hung, a professor in political economy and chair of
the department of sociology at Johns Hopkins University.
“With both
sides digging in, the conflict is likely to escalate. Large turnout of recent
peaceful rally shows that the movement has not yet worn out as the government
hopes,” he said. “A war has started.”
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