Protest leader hit in gruesome hammer attack

A protest leader who became one of the public faces of Hong Kong's pro-democracy demonstrations was left bleeding on the sidewalk Wednesday after as many as five people brutally attacked him with hammers amid the increasing chaos that's roiling the semiautonomous Chinese territory.

Jimmy Sham, the leader of the Civil Human Rights Front, was conscious when he was taken to the hospital, but his condition was not immediately clear, the group said in a Facebook post.

The assailants fled the scene and have not been identified.

The Front, which has organized some of the largest protests since the movement began more than four months ago, suggested the assault was politically motivated.

“The Civil Human Rights Front strongly condemns the acts of the perpetrators,” the Front said in the post. “It is not hard to link this incident to a spreading political terror in order to threaten and inhibit the legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights.”

Sham was on his way to a meeting in the Mong Kok neighborhood of Hong Kong at at the time of the attack, according to the group.

The attack came four days before another planned rally and was the second against Sham in the past two months.

In August, he and another protester were attacked by two masked assailants wielding a baseball bat and a rod, according to the South China Morning Post.

Earlier Wednesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam abruptly walked out of the Legislature Council during a speech after prodemocracy lawmakers accused her of being “the mother of the mafia police,” and held signs with an image of her with blood on her hands.

Lam later delivered the speech by video link, asking citizens of the city — home to more than 7 million people — to “cherish the city,” and adding that “continued violence and spread of hatred will erode the core values of Hong Kong.”

Mass protests started in June, and have continued to rage through the fall.

Claudio Mo, a protesting lawmaker, described Lam's speech as a “shame” during an off-the-cuff news conference outside the legislative chamber.

“She is just a puppet on strings being played by Beijing,” Mo said.

Amnesty International requested authorities look into the bloody beating of Sham.

“Jimmy Sham was left bleeding on the street and has been hospitalized with head injuries,” said Joshua Rosenzwei, the head of Amnesty International's East Asia regional office, according to the BBC. “Even in the context of increasing attacks on activists, this incident is shocking in its brutality.”