Two men are reported to be in a critical condition on Monday after another weekend of unrest and clashes between riot police and anti-government protesters in Hong Kong.
Riot police stormed shopping centers on Sunday after protesters crowded the shopping centers, including, Cityplaza, packed with families and children in the eastern suburb of Taikoo Shing.
Protesters there had initially formed a human chain before facing off with police in skirmishes up and down escalators and spraying graffiti on a restaurant.
A man with a knife slashed several people and apparently bit off part of the ear of a politician. The wounded included a man believed to be the knife-wielder, whom protesters had beaten with sticks. Police gave no details of the two left in critical condition.
The pro-democracy protesters are campaigning against what they see as Chinese meddling with Hong Kong’s promised freedoms. China denies doing so and has blamed Western countries for stirring up trouble in the former British colony.
The protest first ignited by a controversial ‘Extradition Bill’, now rebuked, in June has intensified to the extent that the city last month witnessed a slide in recession in a decade. Protesters have been demanding the government to launch an independent inquiry into police behavior and for universal suffrage.
To challenge the government’s recent invoked emergency issue of banning face masks in Hong Kong, demonstrators have circulated plans on social medias to mark Guy Fawkes Day on November 5 by putting masks.
