Protesters in Hong Kong called a general strike Monday and things turned ugly fast. In an incident just before 8am, a 21-year-old man was shot in the stomach at point-blank range after police clashed with protesters who had been trying to block an intersection. After the shooting, which was captured on video, the protester was taken to the intensive care unit at Eastern Hospital, where dozens of staff members staged a protest to condemn police violence, RTHK reports. Police fired tear gas in numerous other locations around the territory, including in the central business district, where crowds of workers on their lunch hour shouted "Murderers" at riot officers.
"During police operations, one police officer has discharged his service revolver," the government said in a news release, adding that rumors police had been told to use their weapons "recklessly" were "false and malicious." In another incident captured on video, a police officer drove a motorcycle into a group of protesters, the BBC reports. There were also clashes at numerous universities, where police fired rubber bullets and tear gas before entering campuses to arrest protesters. In the Ma On Shan district, a man was set on fire and required hospitalization after he clashed with a group of protesters, the AP reports. The protests follow the death of a university student Friday, which protesters blamed on police, and the arrest of six pro-democracy lawmakers Saturday.
(More
Hong Kong stories.)