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A new violent demonstration took place this Sunday, August 25 in Hong Kong in the district of Tsuen Wan in the north of the capital. Thousands of demonstrators marched in the pouring rain to demand the maintenance of democracy in the Chinese semi-autonomous territory. As yesterday, Saturday, a peaceful demonstration turned into a clash with the riot police. The situation degenerated and the police resorted to water cannons.
It is a move considered as an escalation in Hong Kong: the police used water cannons against radical protesters, a first in the former British colony shaken by pro-democracy demonstrations.
The semi-autonomous territory, one of the world's major financial centers, has been experiencing its worst political crisis since June, when it was handed over to China in 1997. Born out of opposition to a bill - now suspended - aimed at authorizing extradition to mainland China, the movement has turned into a more global campaign for more democracy and the protection of local freedoms against Beijing.
► Also read: "A country, a system and a half": Hong Kong faces the erosion of its autonomy
Thousands of Hong Kongers still paraded quietly in the pouring rain on Sunday in the Tsuen Wan area. 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, the police have so far always claimed to want to use this technique of dispersion in case of " large-scale disruption of public order ."
Current in the West, they are a big novelty in Hong Kong where they had not been used against protesters so far. The population is therefore very sensitive to their use.
A Hong Kong policeman fired at least once with his firearm on Sunday, the police said, also a first in three months of protests in the Chinese semi-autonomous territory.
(With AFP)
► See also : Hong Kong: resumption of clashes after 10 days of lull