Outrage in Hong Kong after shooting caught on camera
The moment a Hong Kong police officer shot and wounded a protester yesterday was streamed live on Facebook, sparking outrage as the Chinese-ruled territory spiralled into rare daytime violence in the 24th straight week of unrest.
Hospital officials said the wounded demonstrator had undergone surgery and was in a critical condition.
The South China Morning Post reported that the bullet was removed during surgery but that it had damaged the protester’s liver and a kidney.
The video, which was shared widely online, showed an officer pulling out his gun before tackling a protester around the neck.
Another demonstrator approaches and the officer aims the gun at the victim, who is dressed in black and has a bandana around his face.
The man is shot in the chest as he appears to try to push the gun away.
He falls to the ground bleeding before being arrested by another police officer.
Other videos showed a man lying in a pool of blood with his eyes wide open. Police also threw a woman to the ground and used pepper spray on her after plastic crates were thrown at officers.
Police later fired tear gas in the same area where the protester was shot.
Protests have occurred almost daily, sometimes with little or no notice, disrupting business and piling pressure on the government.
But it was rare for tear gas to be fired during working hours in the centre of the city as the violence usually begins only after dusk.
Police said they warned the demonstrators to “stop their illegal acts immediately” after protesters set up barSpain
ricades at several locations across the city. They did not comment immediately on the shooting, but dismissed rumours circulating online that police officers had been ordered to use their firearms at will as “totally false and malicious” and said they were committed to upholding “strict guidelines and orders regarding the use of force”.
Police have shot and wounded an 18-year-old protester and a 14-year-old demonstrator since they began using live rounds as warning shots in August.
Anson Yip, 36, a Sai Wan Ho resident, said protesters were dumping rubbish on the streets to create a roadblock when police showed up. He said police “didn’t fight but ran and directly shot”.
“[The protesters] are against the government, that’s why the police just shot them,” he said.
Wing, 24, one of several office workers gathered at the scene after the shooting, said: “When I arrived, the road was blocked and people were yelling at the police, calling them murderers.”
Protesters and residents set up an improvised barricade around the bloodstains next to a pedestrian crossing after a forensics team left the scene.
Protesters are angry about what they see as police brutality and meddling by Beijing that threatens the former British colony’s freedoms, guaranteed by the “one country, two systems” formula put in place when the territory returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
China has accused western states for stirring up trouble.
Police said they were also investigating reports of a man set on fire yesterday in the northeast area of Ma On Shan.
Videos of the man being doused with a flammable liquid during an argument and set alight circulated on social media.