HONG KONG _ Police reportedly opened live fire and shot a person in the chest on Tuesday during protests against China's National Day.
"My chest is hurting. I need to go to the hospital," the wounded protester gasped from the floor, pulling down his respirator as blood poured from his chest in a video immediately shared among protesters on social media.
For a moment, the entire city paused, tens of thousands of protesters, journalists, medics and residents stunned at the news that police had shot a Hong Konger with a real gun for the first time.
Then they went back into battle. "Dirty cops!" protesters screamed as the sky darkened with volleys of tear gas. Black smoke curled into the air from blazing barricades and Molotov cocktails. Protesters smashed windows of a government office as police blasted the crowds with capsicum-laced blue water.
"If they killed someone, that means we get to kill them. An eye for an eye and a life for a life," said Jack, 25, a protester who paused while running from police. "More people will die."
Armored police squads chased protesters down the streets, jumping and beating them with batons. The protesters thrashed on the floor, yelling their names and ID numbers.
At home, supporters watching on live feeds began to cry.
Government warnings against "terrorism" and a shutdown of major transportation hubs did not stop tens of thousands of Hong Kong protesters from taking to the streets, marching in their own version of a National Day parade _ one demanding democratic reforms and government accountability _ in rejection of the Communist Party system of governance.
As Beijing celebrated the Communist Party's 70th anniversary of rule over China with a massive military parade, Hong Kong's protesters amassed along central thoroughfares and in several suburban districts, waving black versions of the Chinese flags and wearing Guy Fawkes masks.
They raised open palms in the air, chanting, "Five demands, not one less" and "Free Hong Kong, revolution now."
Some held banners that read "Celebrate your mom."
It was a day of outright defiance against the Communist Party's celebration of its "national rejuvenation," with many protesters calling it a day of "national grief," wielding posters decrying human rights violations and mass deaths under the Party's rule.
"The so-called National Day is a day for mourning. We are mourning those who sacrificed for democracy in China," said former lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan as the unauthorized marches began. "It's 70 years of suppression. We mourn that, and we also condemn the fact that the Hong Kong government together with Chinese government denied the people of Hong Kong the right to democracy."
The morning started off quietly, stacks of newspapers with bright red ads celebrating China's 70th anniversary sitting in front of locked storefronts covered with protest graffiti against "ChiNazis." Eleven major subway stations were shut down, along with most shopping malls, which have been sites of bloody conflict between protesters and police.
Police had arrested 200 people in the previous three days, including a local news reporter, an activist and a pro-protest actor, and warned Monday that they expected protesters to take "hard-core" action such as arson and murder in police disguise.
Officials held a flag-raising ceremony indoors, behind water barriers and a police contingent, with no public access. Hong Kong's chief executive Carrie Lam was out of town, attending Beijing's military parade in Tiananmen Square.
Early in the morning, dozens of pro-Beijing demonstrators from Hong Kong and the mainland unfurled a large Chinese flag along the harbor.
"As Chinese, we have to have our national pride. We have to love our country more and we want our country to be stronger," said Zhang Zhusheng, 65, a mainlander from Xi'an who said he'd come to Hong Kong expressly to celebrate National Day.
But they were soon outnumbered by thousands of protesters of all ages who poured into the streets across several districts of the city.
Pun, 21, a protester in the Sha Tin suburb who asked not to use his full name for protection from authorities, said he hadn't watched Beijing's military parade.
"In my mind I know it's my country, but I don't feel it in my heart. It looks more like North Korea than Hong Kong," he said.
The last four months of constant protest despite conflict with police had given him a sense of deep pride in being a Hong Konger, he added.
"There's nothing special about today or July 1 or Jan. 26," he said, referring to the dates when Chinese and British sovereignty were respectively established in Hong Kong.
"Hong Kong doesn't have its own national day yet, just the days we were colonized. When we do, I'll celebrate that."
In Wan Chai, a middle-aged couple sat on the sidewalk, watching a live feed of police firing tear gas at protesters as crowds clad in black and singing protest anthems marched by. Kenny Pan, 50, had a heart-shaped China flag sticker on his phone.
"These two things don't contradict each other. I love my country _ doesn't mean I cannot ask for freedom," he said, adding that the government was trying to scare people away from marching by "brutally beating our young people."
"They know the root cause but they don't want to answer for the root cause," he said. "Young people want to say what they don't like. Young people ask for a better future. They just want to air their concerns. I appreciate that."
Within an hour of the marches' official start, riot police began charging and firing tear gas at protesters. Street clashes began in several districts and soon took over large swaths of the city.
"The government is using the police as a tool to destroy Hong Kong and the Hong Kong people and they take their instructions from the CCP," said Frank, 32, a protester carrying a black flag that said "Free Hong Kong, Revolution now."
"We don't feel anything today except anger," he said.
