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August 26, 2019

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Shot fired in Hong Kong as protests turn violent

HONG Kong police officers were forced to pull out their guns and a shot was heard during yesterday’s clashes between Hong Kong police and protesters, the first time a live round has been used during three months of protests.

The police said that three officers pulled their guns, but one warning shot was made, because the policeman feared for his life, CGTN reported.

Five police officers were injured in the clashes between Hong Kong police and protesters in an illegal demonstration in Tsuen Wan.

“Colleague officers have opened fire while under a protester’s attack in a situation where their lives were in danger,” superintendent Leung Kwok-wing of New Territories South Regional Crime Headquarters said.

Radical protesters turned violent yesterday in driving rain.

At least six petrol bombs were thrown by protesters, some of whom took off down narrow side streets.

Some dug up bricks from the pavement and wheeled them away to use as ammunition, others sprayed detergent on the road to make it slippery for the lines of police.

Water cannons were also used for the first time yesterday in Tsuen Wan. It was targeting barricades and the open space without targeting protesters, Global Times reported.

HK Commissioner of Police Lo Wai-chung visited injured police officers in Princess Margaret Hospital yesterday and was saddened the officers sustained serious injuries while on duty.

Lo strongly condemned the rioters’ violent actions, vowing to track down those responsible and hold them accountable.

On Saturday, protesters, using electric saws and ropes, brought down several lampposts, though police had told them there’s no facial-recognition function in them.

Hong Kong lawmakers approved the lampposts as part of a smart-city project last year. The Hong Kong government said the sensors in the lampposts only collect data on traffic, weather, and air quality.

The central government’s policymakers and advisers on Hong Kong affairs met in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Saturday in an effort to find a solution to end the weeks-long protests in Hong Kong, Xinhua news agency reported.

“Even under the condition that the central government is forced to step in and calm down the unrest in Hong Kong, it does not mean the end of ‘One Country, Two Systems,’” said Lau Siu-kai, the vice president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, who also teaches at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

It means the central government is fulfilling its obligation to Hong Kong and safeguarding the implementation of the “One Country, Two Systems” from external interference, Lau said.

The remarks were made at a seminar attended by 40 policy-makers.




 

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