HK protester shot in the chest amid National Day violence
A teen protester was shot at close range during the worst violence in more than half a century | WATCH
A police officer shot a protester in the chest during a day of bitter fighting here that marked the worst and most widespread violence to hit the city in more than half a century.
The officer pulled his pistol and fired in self-defence, a police spokeswoman said on Tuesday. One video showed the officer shooting at close range after the protester charged with a metal bar.
The protester, identified as 18-year-old high-school Tsang Chi-kin, was out of surgery as of early Wednesday local time. Health officials said he remained in critical condition. Another showed the protester on the ground with blood spilling from his chest.
Footage from protests in Hong Kong today allegedly show the moment a protestor was shot in the chest. pic.twitter.com/xlkkhfQWRz
— Kyle Glen (@KyleJGlen) October 1, 2019
The incident was the first of its kind since protests erupted in the city in early June. It happened as tens of thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets in Hong Kong’s main business districts and turned out in suburbs across the territory in counter-rallies to China’s massive National Day celebration. Their tactics left police stretched thin and outmatched in spots, leading to pitched attacks and counter-attacks.
Shortly after reports of the shooting emerged, huge numbers of police moved into the central district of Wan Chai to break up protesters who had participated in a rally. A woman originally from the U.K. fell to the ground after being hit by a projectile fired by police outside the nearby Admiralty subway station. She wouldn’t give her name but said she had lived in Hong Kong for 25 years.
“I just don’t want to see this,” she said. “This is my home; this is my children’s home.”
The shooting is sure to further inflame the protest movement, which has shown no signs of abating despite the government’s pleas for calm. Across the city, as protesters were alerted to the shooting on their smartphones, there was temporary quiet at various battlegrounds where protesters and police faced off. In the past few months, the movement has drawn momentum from what protesters perceive as a lack of police accountability.
“The police do not wish to see anyone injured in these incidents. It is very heartbreaking,” said Senior Superintendent Yolanda Yu, a police spokeswoman.
The protests stem from a perceived erosion of the city’s liberties by China and the tactics of the city’s police, who have angered people across Hong Kong after a number of violent incidents were caught on video.
In the suburb of Sha Tin, the city’s largest residential district, protesters seized overpasses and threw rocks, Molotov cocktails and full soda cans down on outnumbered police, as some supporters among local residents chanted from apartment buildings. Police responded with multiple rounds of tear gas and other projectiles, fogging over the corners.
Protesters on a nearby bridge nearly overwhelmed a line of police who had to be rescued by elite colleagues who charged the protesters and forced them to scatter.
About 20 miles away in Tuen Mun on the far western edge of the territory, protesters armed with sticks and umbrellas charged a small contingent of police in riot gear. The police, cornered against a building, fought back with batons and pepper spray but were quickly overwhelmed and forced to retreat inside. Police said protesters in the neighbourhood also threw corrosive fluid on officers.
Thousands more protesters filled the main road of the heavily populated district of Kowloon, just across the harbour from downtown Hong Kong, with no police in sight by midafternoon. Several small squads of protesters were geared up with body armour and metal rods. Others carried gasoline bombs around their waist. They broke subway windows and traffic lights, smashed a branch of a mainland Chinese bank and burned a Chinese national flag.
They later hurled gasoline bombs at a nearby police station as police fired tear gas down from a roof. A few minutes later, a line of police vans arrived. Officers poured out and charged the protesters, running half a mile over bonfires and other roadblocks, pinning captured protesters to the ground along the way.
Tuesday marked the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China. The scenes of defiance and discontent in Hong Kong contrasted with the colourful, jubilant celebrations in Beijing — including the country’s biggest ever military parade, designed to showcase the nation’s might.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam was seen in Beijing smiling as she watched the parade, which included a Hong Kong float carrying a golden egg, a reference to the city’s science park. In Hong Kong, her deputy, Matthew Cheung, led a Chinese-flag-raising ceremony in the morning, telling guests that Hong Kong people were “shocked and saddened by the violence that has turned the city that we call home into an unfamiliar place.”
Demonstrators in Hong Kong were intent on marring Chinese President Xi Jinping’s big day, expressing strong opposition to his grand vision of a unified country. Parts of the city were in de facto lockdown on Tuesday. The city’s subway operator, MTR Corp. , closed stations. Shopping malls — popular destinations throughout densely populated Hong Kong — were also shut in anticipation of the demonstrations.
One march on Tuesday was originally called by the Civil Human Rights Front, the umbrella human-rights group that has organised the biggest marches in Hong Kong this year. The theme was “National Mourning Day.” Some people released black balloons into the sky; others threw into the air joss paper, traditionally burned during Chinese funerals.
Police had issued an objection to the plan, which forced the group to cancel the march, although tens of thousands of people still came out to walk the intended route.
“For Hong Kong people, there’s nothing to celebrate today,” said Bonnie Leung, who was in the leadership of the Civil Human Rights Front when they applied for a permit for Tuesday’s march. “China has a habit of silencing people during ‘celebrations’ like National Day to create a cosmetic peaceful scene. It might work in Beijing, but it would never work in Hong Kong,” Ms. Leung said.
The protests were originally sparked in early June by opposition to an extradition bill — which Mrs. Lam in September said she would withdraw — that would have allowed suspects to be tried in the mainland’s more opaque legal system.
As the weeks went on, the movement widened to include more demands: a judge-led inquiry into how police have handled the protests, amnesty for arrested protesters, the removal of the designation of protests as riots and universal suffrage. These remaining four are sustaining the anti-government movement.
Police had warned on Monday that they had intelligence suggesting that some violent protesters would incite others to acts that are “one step closer to terrorism.” On Tuesday evening, the force appealed to the public to stay in safe places and avoid going outdoors due to the “rioting acts” across the city.
Dozens of subway stations weren’t in service. The city’s hospital authority said 51 people were injured, including two men in critical condition, as of 8pm.
Around 5pm, police started clearing protesters from Sha Tin. Officers fired repeated volleys of tear gas, pepper balls and other less-lethal ammunition as they charged protesters occupying streets between residential high-rises and pedestrian bridges.
Cries of “Black police!” echoed through the narrow passageways as officers wielding batons and shotguns chased protesters down the winding paths, popping fresh rounds of tear gas along the way.
With the advantage turned, many of the protesters seemed to melt away, leaving streets empty where there had been thousands shortly before. The paper money burned at funerals littered the empty streets along with bricks, broken umbrellas, teargas canisters, roadway fencing and dropped items like bags and glasses.
A dropped cellphone rang on an empty street as the sun started to set, with a helicopter whirring overhead.
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