For the first time, Hong Kong police on Tuesday fired live ammunition directly at protesters during agitations, injuring at least one and escalating the city's months-long political crisis on the same day when mainland China staged a huge military parade to celebrate 70 years of its Communist regime.
The protester was shot in the Tsuen Wan district of northern Hong Kong, the city's lawmakers James To and Au Nok-hin said. The man's condition was not immediately known, The New York Times reported.
In a video circulating online, a man wearing a black T-shirt and a pink gas mask was seen being treated by paramedics.
The shooting came hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping, earlier today, presided over festivities in Beijing and promised to stay committed to the "one country, two systems" principle with regard to Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, demonstrations took place in at least five parts of the semi-autonomous region as protesters upstaged Beijing's celebrations by transforming the occasion into violent clashes between the demonstrators and riot police.
The demonstrations on Tuesday descended into panic and chaos by sundown, as police used huge amounts of tear gas, a water cannon and brute force to clear away the protesters, some of whom were peaceful while others threw bricks and petrol bombs at them. Marches earlier in the day featured families, the elderly and children.
Authorities responded by closing almost two dozen shopping malls, roads and key subway stations while warning of chaos and deploying thousands of riot officers in an attempt to thwart the demonstrations.
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Protesters are hoping to send a clear message to Beijing on the 70th anniversary of Chinese Communist Party rule: Protect Hong Kong's freedoms and grant it full democracy, or face continued and unending dissent designed to shame the Chinese President at a sensitive time in his tenure.
In his opening speech before the parade, Xi sent a message to Hong Kong, saying, "No force can shake the status of our great motherland, no force can obstruct the advance of the Chinese people and Chinese nation."
Speaking from Tiananmen, or the Gate of Heavenly Peace, which overlooks the square, the leader noted that China would "maintain the lasting prosperity and stability" of Hong Kong and Macau.