• Thousands on the streets in Hong Kong challenge the ban on wearing masks: barricades and fires
  • Hong Kong, accused of riot and aggression, the 18-year-old injured by the police
  • Activist shot in the chest from police shots in Hong Kong, is serious
  • Hong Kong: urban warfare in the city, dozens of arrests

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05 October 2019Demosters took to the streets again today in Hong Kong, on the second day of demonstrations against the government's decision to resurrect colonial-era emergency laws and to ban masks in demonstrations. The South China Morning Post writes this, in the aftermath of yesterday's harsh protests, which caused injuries. Messages launched on social networks have called protests in over 20 areas of the city. Currently over 1,000 demonstrators are reported in Causeway Bay in the city center, while hundreds have formed a human chain in Tsim Sha Tsui and others have staged a peaceful sit-in at the Tai Po Mega Mall.

It was a night of clashes and vandalism. The governor reacted by denouncing what she calls "masked insurgents", assured that the population was "terrified" at the end of "a very dark night for Hong Kong" and called on citizens to distance themselves from the most radical demonstrators. Meanwhile, following the looting of dozens of metro stations, the public operator MTR announced the suspension of trains across the entire network, which carries 4 million passengers every day. And hundreds of shopping centers and supermarkets have remained closed, as have many Chinese banks, whose facades have been covered with tags. The ban on wearing masks was introduced by the Hong Kong authorities invoking emergency provisions dating back to 1922, the Emergency Ordinance Regulations, which had not been used for 52 years. The law authorizes the executive to adopt "any measure", without the need for the go-ahead of Parliament, in the event of an emergency situation or a danger for the population.

The ban was thought to put an end to the four months of unprecedented protest since the former British colony returned to Beijing in 1997, but the result was the opposite: a few hours after the announcement protest actions broke out a bit everywhere . From the Causeway Bay shopping district to Sheung Shui, near the border with China, where AFP journalists saw groups of masked protesters breaking shop windows belonging to Chinese companies or considered pro-Beijing. Cops, many of whom had their faces covered and did not carry identification numbers, were also seen by AFP while handcuffing a man wearing a mask in Central's shopping district late Saturday afternoon.

In Yuen Long, then, a policeman opened fire after his car was surrounded by a crowd and a Molotov cocktail exploded at his feet, according to witnesses; in the same neighborhood a 14-year-old was injured by a bullet, reports the South China Morning Post, without however linking the two events.