Hong Kong protests: Shot teenager charged with rioting and attacking police
The 18-year-old Hong Kong student took a bullet in the left shoulder and is still in a critical condition in hospital.
Thursday 3 October 2019 19:40, UK
A teenage protester who was shot by police during an anti-China rally in Hong Kong has been charged with rioting and assaulting an officer.
Tsang Chi-kin, who took a bullet in the left shoulder during a fight with riot officers in the Tsuen Wan district of the city on Tuesday, is still in a critical condition in hospital.
The 18-year-old, known as "Tony", was shot at close range - with police saying the officer had fired because he feared for his life.
Footage from the scene shows a group of protesters with bars and umbrellas fighting with police.
The officers are outnumbered and one runs in to back up colleagues, his handgun drawn.
The student can be seen swinging a pole, then a gunshot rings out.
While officers had been seen firing live warning shots during the last few weeks of demonstrations, a protester had not been directly hit.
"For many the shooting of a teenager has crossed a line and it feels like this protest has entered a new phase," said Sky Siobhan Robbins, who spoke to classmates and friends of the shot teenager during a demonstration which continued into the early hours of Thursday.
"With this act the authorities have provoked a deeper level of anger and distrust and it's difficult to see how the rifts in this city can be healed."
About 100,000 people took part in the widespread rallies on China's National Day as the Communist Party marked its 70th anniversary - despite a Hong Kong police ban.
Demonstrators clad in black clothing expressed "mourning" for "the death of Hong Kong's future".
It was one of the most violent days of the demonstrations, inflamed with anger against police.
Now in their fifth month, the protests have become more violent with demonstrators hurling petrol bombs at police who have responded with tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets.
Sky's Alex Crawford, who was reporting from the city's Admiralty district at the time, said: "This water cannon is very, very effective at dispersing crowds.
"I think the water has definitely been mixed with something because it is very toxic. You find it hard to breathe. It is not just water, not just blue dye."
Meanwhile, it has emerged an Indonesian journalist shot in the face with a crowd-control round on Sunday has permanently lost sight in one eye.
Initially, the demonstrations were over a now-suspended bill that would allow criminal suspects in Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China.
But broader concerns about the erosion of freedoms under the "one country, two systems" formula - enacted after Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997 - have now come to the fore.
The protesters want democratic reforms and the city's Beijing-backed leader, Carrie Lam, to resign.