HKUST Student Critical After Tseung Kwan O Fall

A student from the University of Science and Technology (HKUST) was in a critical condition on Monday morning after he fell from height in Tseung Kwan O as riot police fired tear gas the night before.

The university's president, Professor Wei Shyy, paid a visit to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Monday morning where the student has been admitted to the intensive care unit.

Sources told RTHK that the student suffered from bleeding on his brain. The university said it was highly concerned about the case, and the university would provide all the necessary assistance to the student and his family. The student union said it is also offering help.

The incident came after a group of officers fired multiple rounds of tear gas around the Sheung Tak Estate in the early morning hours of Monday after some protesters threw glass bottles and bricks at officers.

It was reported that the injured student fell from the third floor of a car park at the estate onto the second floor while trying to get away from the tear gas.

Meanwhile, the student union of the privately-funded Shue Yan University has condemned the police force for "excessive violence and use of lethal weapons".

It said a first year student from the university, who was at a protest site in Causeway Bay as a volunteer first aider on Saturday, was hit and burnt by a tear gas canister thrown by the police.

The injured student suffered serious, extensive burns on his back due to the explosion of the canister, the union said.

It expressed worries that the injury "would very likely leave him with a lifelong scar, physically and mentally", and condemned what it called an unreasonable and seemingly targeted attack by the police.