Tear Gas As Anger Grows In Sai Wan Ho After Shooting

Police fired tear gas as angry residents set up burning roadblocks and vandalised an MTR station following the shooting of at least one protester in Sai Wan Ho on Monday morning.

A 21-year-old man was in a critical condition in Eastern Hospital after the shooting, which happened shortly before 8am.

Footage from the scene showed police deploying pepper spray and pushing people to the ground as a large crowd gathered close to the scene of the shooting, at the junction of Shing On Street and Tai Shek Street. Tear gas was fired shortly before 11am as residents set fire to barricades in the area.

Callum Lau, a Chai Wan resident, said the use of live ammunition in the area was completely inappropriate.

"Honestly, I've been living here for more than 20 years. I have family here, friends here, I studied at schools nearby and this is a very familiar society to me and it is totally unacceptable for me to see a brutal police force just come into my society and hit a person," he said.

As riot police initially left the scene after 10am, people began setting up barricades and starting fires on the streets. Others threw bricks into the nearby Sai Wan MTR Station and vandalised it. Island Line trains are not stopping at Sai Wan Ho.

The shooting happened shortly before 8am and was live-streamed online.

It came as protesters blocked or tried to block roads across Hong Kong as they sought to fulfill their call for the start of the week to be marked by a general strike.

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