Hong Kong on edge after day of violence

]]]]>]]> Authorities are calling for calm after a day of clashes around the city on Monday that saw protesters hurl petrol bombs, set fires, build barricades and disrupt transport. More than 260 people were arrested as the protests went late into the night, police said in a statement.Some universities and schools have canceled classes Tuesday as protesters and riot police gather in locations around the Asian financial hub. By 8 a.m., police had already fired tear gas on the city’s streets. In a press conference Tuesday morning, Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam called out “aggressive rioters” who she said were trying to disrupt the city’s transport networks. “They want to paralyze Hong Kong, which is a selfish act,” she said. Although some schools have shut for the day, Lam said the government is not officially suspending classes as it would give protesters what they wanted — to bring the city to a standstill. Most subway lines are operating, however some commuters were forced to walk along the train tracks in Sha Tin district after an unidentified object was found on the track, an MTR representative said. At the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) — a short distance from Sha Tin — CNN saw black-clad protesters setting up barricades on Tuesday morning. A collection of bows and arrows had also been piled nearby. At midday Tuesday, a few thousand people occupied a major intersection in Central, the city’s business district. Some appeared to be office workers on their lunch break, while others wore black and shielded behind umbrellas.A day of chaosOn Monday morning local time, a police officer shot a 21-year-old protester at close range in the torso in Sai Wan Ho, on eastern Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong Chief Superintendent of Police Tse Chun-Chung said the officer fired because he was afraid the protester would attempt to snatch the gun from his hand.On Monday afternoon, police said there was no immediate threat to the protester’s life, and on Tuesday, hospital authorities said he was no longer in a critical condition. According to a police source, the protester has been arrested for unlawful assembly, and for attempted robbery over allegedly trying to grab the gun.Police first used lethal force in October by firing a live shot and injuring an 18-year-old man. ]]]]>]]>In a separate incident on Monday afternoon, a 57-year-old man was doused with a flammable liquid and set alight after an argument with protesters on a footbridge in Ma On Shan, police said in a statement. The man remains in a critical condition, according to Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority. Police are treating the case as attempted murder. A police officer was suspended from front line service Monday after driving a motorbike through a crowd of protesters in Kwai Fung, in the New Territories, Tse said.While police officers were under great pressure, they were not out of control, he said. “We appeal to everyone to please stay calm and rational,” Tse added. “Continuing this rampage is a lose-lose situation for Hong Kong — everyone is a loser.”Human rights group Amnesty International called Monday a “shocking low for the Hong Kong police,” describing the shooting of the protester as a “reckless use of force.”Ongoing protestsHong Kong’s protests began in June over a now-withdrawn extradition bill.Since then, demonstrations have expanded to include five major demands, including an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality and wider democratic reforms.In response to the demands, the city government appointed a panel of overseas experts to assist Hong Kong’s longstanding Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC), which is conducting a fact-finding study into alleged police misconduct during the protests.But on Saturday, one of the experts tweeted a copy of the panel’s progress report, criticizing the IPCC’s investigative capabilities, and saying it needed to “substantially enhance its capacity” to assess evidence from witnesses and assemble a coherent account of the facts.The IPCC said it was “disappointed” that it was not consulted before one of the overseas experts made the progress report public. On Sunday, the Hong Kong government said the IPCC’s study would be “by no means a final report.”The nonstop protests have also sent retail and tourism numbers plunging, and the semi-autonomous city fell into recession in October. Travel is dropping as demonstrations escalate in violence, and there is increasing public hostility toward the city government and police force.Escalating violenceMonday’s violence comes just days after a university student died from a head injury suffered in a parking garage close to the scene of protests.Chow Tsz-lok, a computer sciences student at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), died on Friday morning after being on life support.Although there is no indication that Chow was involved in the nearby protest the night of his injury, his death prompted an outpouring of anger and grief from anti-government protesters, who claim that police actions on the night of the accident resulted in paramedics being temporarily unable to access him, a charge the force denies. CNN’s Jadyn Shum and Joshua Berlinger contributed to this report.