6 Injured After Fireworks are Launched From a Car At Hong Kong Protesters
By Ryan General
Violence and chaos brought about by the ongoing extradition bill crisis continued to permeate Hong Kong as more clashes between protesters and police took place last week.
Hong Kong protesters who were gathered outside Tin Shui Wai Police Station on Wednesday morning were injured after a private vehicle’s drive-by firework attack on the crowd. Six people were reportedly injured from the fireworks that were suddenly let off toward their direction following an escalation of violence that erupted the night before.
Anger over arrests and riot charges have led to demonstrators attacking Kwai Chung and Tin Shui Wai police stations on Tuesday night, reports South China Morning Post.
Hundreds of protesters, many of them masked and dressed in black, gathered outside Kwai Chung Police Station on Tuesday evening to call for the release of 44 suspects charged with rioting. The crowd, who called those arrested “honorable fighters,” at one point started hurling verbal abuse at officers in the station.
Some officers attempted to disperse the angry crowd with pepper spray, while another officer remained armed with a Remington shotgun allegedly loaded with beanbag rounds. Officers armed with batons and shields eventually faced objects being hurled at their direction as they made another attempt at dispersing the agitated crowd at 10:40 p.m.
Meanwhile, a crowd at the Tin Shui Wai Police Station gathered after two people were arrested at a nearby “Lennon Wall” where messages denouncing the government’s controversial bill were posted.
As tensions grew into the early morning, a vehicle drove past the station at around 2:30 a.m. and set off several fireworks at the crowd who started screaming and running for cover.
Five of the six victims who were injured were admitted to Tin Shui Wai Hospital while the remaining individual declined to be sent for treatment.
Witnesses at the scene in Kwai Chung claimed that tensions escalated after some police officers were attacked by protesters as they were responding to reports a man had collapsed. The officers retaliated at demonstrators by using pepper spray on them.
Hong Kong Journalists Association and Hong Kong Press Photographers Association would later release a joint statement condemning the police for an alleged attack against an Apple Daily journalist. The journalist was reportedly smacked in the face with an officer’s shield. The statement also claimed one officer threatened to hit a Now TV journalist with a baton.
Featured image via YouTube/AFP news agency
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