A Hong Kong policeman fired at least once with his gun on Sunday, August 25, and police used water cannons against radical protesters.

"A colleague just fired with his gun, which I understand is that a uniformed policeman made that shot," Hong Kong police officer Leung Kwok Win told reporters at the time. that violent clashes broke out between pro-democracy protesters and police in Tsuen Wan, about 10 kilometers from the city center.

It was not possible to know who the target was, but it was the first time a firearm had been fired since the protests began in Hong Kong three months ago. The semi-autonomous territory, one of the world's major financial centers, has been experiencing its worst political crisis since June since its return to China in 1997.

At the same time, thousands of Hong Kong residents paraded quietly in the pouring rain on Sunday in the district of Tsuen Wan. But radical protesters then erected a barricade and threw cobblestones and Molotov cocktails at the police.

After firing tear gas that did not have the desired effect, the riot police used water cannons against the protesters.

A sign of escalation, law enforcement has so far always claimed to want to use this technique of dispersion in case of "large-scale disruption of public order".

A second gathering of several hundred people, in which police relatives were involved, was also held at another location in the city on Sunday afternoon.

Police accused of violence

Since the beginning of the movement, the reaction of the central government has been mixed. While it has no legal right to intervene directly in Hong Kong, Beijing has used a range of methods, from intimidation to propaganda and economic pressure, to try to contain the opposition. .

The police of the territory, regularly blasted by the demonstrators, has been the target for weeks of the ire of the protestors who accuse him of violence.

The police on Saturday charged radical pro-democracy protesters who had erected a barricade in eastern Hong Kong. Scuffles that marked the end of a relative lull of violence for 10 days.

Police fired tear gas and beat protesters who threw stones and bottles.

Ten people were hospitalized as a result of the clashes, including two in serious condition, said medical staff, without specifying whether they are police or demonstrators.

With AFP