Hong Kong police warned today that violence in the Asian financial hub had escalated to a ‘life-threatening level’ after new rounds of clashes rocked the city over the weekend.
One video shows a Hong Kong protester fly-kicking a police officer who was trying to arrest another activist in Mong Kok district yesterday.
Another clip, also taken in Mong Kok, shows a Hong Kong media worker detained by police after allegedly being shot in the head with a bean bag round.
The injured media worker lies on the ground outside the Mong Kok police station at the wee hours on Monday after being hit with a bean bag round by police officers from above
The worker tries to explain to police that he works for the press after being assaulted by them
One riot officer threatens to pepper-spray a cameraman who works alongside the injured man
Hong Kong was shaken by another week of violence and clashes as hardcore demonstrators took to the streets, smashing up pro-Beijing businesses, barricading roads and unfurling American and British flags.
Police said a small bomb similar to those used in ‘terrorist attacks’ was detonated as a police car drove past and officers were clearing roadblocks in Kowloon district last night.
Another officer was reportedly slashed in the neck with a box cutter in Kwun Tong. He is said to be in stable condition and two suspects were arrested at the scene.
The officer who was filmed fly-kicked by one protester was then beaten by several others. He got up by himself while the attackers fled the scene, the footage shows.
The officer struggles as he tries to arrest a black-clad protester before being fly-kicked
One protester launches a fly-kick attack on a police officer who was trying to arrest an activist
The media worker who was allegedly shot and detained by police works as a driver for local TV station Now News.
He was said to be walking towards his company’s vehicle outside a police station in the wee hours today when he was assaulted.
The driver, who is awaiting surgery in hospital, claimed police beat him with their batons after taking him into the police station.
Riot officers also threatened to pepper-spray his cameraman colleague who was trying to confirm the victim’s press identity, footage of the scene shows.
The driver was released two hours later after police confirmed he had had ‘legitimate reasons’ to be at the scene, reported Now News.
Doctors found injuries in nine places on his body, including a swelling at the back of his head where he had been hit by the bean bag round as well as fractures on his chin, the station said.
The worker’s high-vis press vest is lying on the ground next to him after he was shot by police
Multiple officers escort the worker while his company’s car (circled) is parked metres away
Now News condemned police of abusing their power.
‘The station expresses extreme regret about the fact that our driver was pressed to the ground, bound by cable ties and taken to the police station after explaining his identity,’ the news organisation wrote today.
‘Our driver was violently treated in the police station even though he was injured. The station strongly condemns the abuse of power from police, urges police to exercise restraint while enforcing law and investigate the matter thoroughly,’ it added.
Protesters attack a man during an anti-government demonstration in Hong Kong on Sunday
A man attacked by protesters is pictured covered in blood in a supermarket in Hong Kong
Hong Kong Police officers arrest a protester during yesterday’s protests. Rallies erupted in multiple neighbourhoods with some protesters blocking roads, smashing pro- China shops
Anti-government protesters vandalise a Bank of China branch during a protest yesterday
Flashmobs struck on Sunday in shopping malls in Sha Tin and Tseun Wan holding umbrellas and wearing masks in defiance of the government’s new sweep of restrictions on protests.
‘Violence against police has reached a life-threatening level,’ said Deputy Commissioner of Police Tang Ping-keung.
‘They are not protesters, they are rioters and criminals. Whatever cause they are fighting for it never justifies such violence,’ the spokesperson condemned.
Anti-China protesters have hauled a 13-foot statue called ‘Lady Liberty’ to the top of a famous Hong Kong mountain that shows a woman in a gas mask carrying an umbrella and a black flag
The statue, which proclaims the protest slogan ‘liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times’, was a regular feature at large rallies which have rocked the financial hub since early June
Volunteers used the cover of night to carry the eight-and-a-half-stone artwork up the steep path to the summit of Lion Rock. The city witnessed another weekend of violence and clashes
China’s President Xi Jinping warned yesterday that any attempts to divide the country would end in ‘crushed bodies and shattered bones’.
At a meeting with the Nepalese Prime Minister, President Xi also declared: ‘Any external forces backing such attempts dividing China will be deemed by the Chinese people as pipe-dreaming!’
Police made multiple arrests in the past two days as they rushed to intercept activists but the clashes were less heavy than earlier this month when the city was virtually shut down by the most intense unrest of the four month protest movement.
A woman reacts after protesters sprayed her face because she attempted to remove their road barricades in Hong Kong on Sunday
Riot police, some wielding rubber bullet guns, and wearing heavy armour patrol the Tai Po district after demonstrators massed there on Sunday
Protesters wearing masks, one wielding a metal bar, form a barricade in the middle of a road in the Mongkok district of Hong Kong on Sunday
Riot police detain a protester at Tseun Wan shopping mall on Sunday as another wields an umbrella during pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong
In the district of Mong Kok, riot police burst from an unmarked van that had screeched up to a blockade made of bamboo scaffolding poles and quickly chased down multiple protesters who were pinned to the ground and detained.
Footage shows one female protester being pepper-sprayed in the face by a riot officer on Fife Street in Mong Kok.
She was then pushed by the officers and dragged along the ground.
In Tai Po district, officers charged into a mall where protesters had tagged a number of businesses with slogans with at least two arrests made.
Shattered glass is strewn across a vandalised restaurant at the Sha Tin Plaza mall during an anti-government protests on Sunday
Protesters wearing masks and carrying umbrellas sprint through the streets of the city today
Hong Kong has been gripped by mass demonstrations since June over a now-withdrawn extradition bill, which have since morphed into a wider anti-government movement (pictured: smashed windows at a mall in Sha Tin)
Protesters unfurl their umbrellas as they block roads in the Tai Po neighbourhood of the city on Sunday
Similar flashmobs and brief clashes were witnessed in at least three other locations with bystanders often heckling police as they made arrests.
Hong Kong has witnessed four months of massive democracy protests which have seen increasingly violent clashes between hard-core demonstrators and police, as well as regular transport disruptions.
The wave of protests was sparked by opposition to a now-scrapped proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China, but has since morphed into a larger movement for democracy and police accountability.
The city enjoys unique rights under the terms of its handover to China by Britain in 1997, including freedom of expression and an independent judiciary, but many believe these are under threat from an increasingly assertive Beijing.
Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, a Hong Kong media tycoon and leading pro-democracy activist, has said that the demonstrations in the city herald a new cold war between China and the United States.
Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, a Hong Kong media tycoon and leading pro-democracy activist, has said that the demonstrations in the city heralds a new cold war between China and the United States. Above, Lai meets with US Vice-President Mike Pence in the White House on July 8
China’s President Xi Jinping warned that any attempts to divide the country would end in ‘crushed bodies and shattered bones’. He made the speech yesterday at a meeting with the Nepalese Prime Minister. The Chinese leader is pictured speaking in Kathmandu on Saturday
‘We are fighting the first battle of the new cold war,’ he told 60 minutes, a programme of CBS, adding that the values of Hong Kong people line up with those of the West, not Beijing.
Multiple American organisations, including Apple and the NBA, have been facing backlashes from both China and their homeland due to comments or products related to the anti-government protests.
Beijing pressures global companies to take their stance on Hong Kong, warning them to mind their own business; but Western media and commentators urge the firms to put aside commercial interests and support democracy and human rights.