Man set on fire after row with hardcore protesters
As protesters erected barricades to block Hong Kong commuters yesterday the man in the green T-shirt vented his frustration. ‘‘You are not Chinese!’’ he told them.
The remark would cost him dearly: moments later, he was doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire, with the confrontation filmed on numerous mobile phones and broadcast soon afterwards on news outlets around the world.
Yesterday he was in a critical condition in hospital with seconddegree burns to his face and torso.
The attack represents a significant surge in violence on the streets of the former British colony as the pro-democracy protests move into a sixth month, raising fears that Beijing will decide to restore order by force.
Yesterday’s protests started early. By 7am, activists had begun to put up roadblocks across the city, a move that would paralyse main thoroughfares later in the day.
In Sai Wan Ho, a residential area, a dozen masked protesters wielding batons confronted a police officer as he tried to remove one of the barricades, according to the authorities.
Video shows the policeman wrestling with a protester, his gun drawn. He points it at another protester and fires as the man approaches him, then gets off two more shots when others try to grab the gun.
Police said that the officer acted in self-defence. ‘‘It all happened very fast, and the officer used his power to protect himself and to protect the gun,’’ said Kwok Pak-chung, regional commander of Hong Kong Island.
The victim, a 21-year-old student, was in intensive care yesterday.
The bullet is believed to have hit a kidney and his liver.
In another violent incident a man accused of taking photographs of the protesters was beaten with a hammer, leaving his face, head and arms covered with blood.
Demonstrators rampaged across the city, setting fire to a commuter train, subway stations and part of a university campus. In Kwai Fong, central Hong Kong, a policeman rammed his motorcycle into a group of about 30 protesters.
The authorities said that the officer had been suspended and promised to launch an inquiry.
Carrie Lam, the chief executive, denounced the protesters yesterday and described the attack on the man who was set on fire as ‘‘horrifying’’.
She added: ‘‘Can people still live safely in this city? I call on the citizens of Hong Kong to realise the nature of the protests is to destroy and to send Hong Kong on to a path of no return. Today a citizen of different political views was burnt. By such an act, you become [the] people’s enemy.
‘‘Violence will only give rise to more violence, and escalation in violence will lead to tragedies, which no one in Hong Kong wants to happen.’’ – The Times
The expected interim president of Bolivia made an emotional call yesterday for an end to the violence gripping the capital, as confrontations between police and groups loyal to outgoing president Evo Morales continued to flare up.
Following attacks on the properties of prominent antimorales figures over the weekend, there were further violent confrontations yesterday between police and protest groups linked to his MAS party.
While the United States has expressed support for Morales’s resignation, which he announced on Monday, Venezuela has joined with some of his Leftist allies decrying the events as a ‘‘coup’’.
A tearful Jeanine Anez, an opposition lawmaker who will assume the interim presidency, promised to oversee a peaceful handover of power by January 22.
‘‘We are going to call elections,’’ Anez told reporters, saying that there would be ‘‘an electoral process that reflects the wants of all Bolivians’’.
– Telegraph Group