Hong Kong protester shot by police in critical condition
Video report by ITV News Reporter Martha Fairlie
A Hong Kong protester who was shot by police on Monday morning is in a critical condition.
The dramatic scene was caught on video, as demonstrators blocked train lines and roads in a day of spiraling violence fuelled by demands for democratic reforms.
Elsewhere, a man was set on fire following an apparent dispute over national identity in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory, which has been wracked by five months of protests.
The man was in critical condition in a city hospital.
The shooting is likely to inflame anger further in Hong Kong, after a student who fell during an earlier protest succumbed to his injuries on Friday and police arrested six pro-democracy lawmakers over the weekend.
The video shows a police officer shooing away a group of protesters at the intersection, then drawing his gun on a masked protester in a white hooded sweatshirt who approaches him.
As the two struggle another protester in black approaches, and the officer points his gun at the second one.
He then fires at the stomach area of the second protester, who falls to the ground.
The officer appeared to fire again as a third protester in black joined the tussle.
The protester in white manages to flee, bounding up a nearby stairway, and the officer and a colleague pin the two in black to the ground.
Police said that only one protester was hit and he was undergoing surgery.
A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong hospital authority said the person shot was in critical condition but gave no further details.
Hong Kong is in the sixth month of protests that began over a proposed extradition law and have expanded to include demands for greater democracy and police accountability.
Activists say Hong Kong’s autonomy and Western-style civil liberties, promised when the former British colony was returned to China in 1997, are eroding.