"If there's still any wishful thinking that by escalating violence the Hong Kong SAR government will yield to pressure to satisfy the so-called political demands, I'm making this statement clear and loud here: that will not happen," Lam said at a press conference on Monday evening. Lam said setting a man on fire because he was arguing with protesters was a "totally inhumane act that nobody should condone". She said it was unacceptable to say police were out of control. Yet Amnesty International had earlier described police actions on Monday as just that, after the shooting of the protester at close range, and an incident in which a policeman drove his motorcycle at high speed into a crowd of protesters. "This pervasive, heavy-handed behaviour shows the police cannot investigate themselves," said Amnesty's Hong Kong director Man-kei Tam. The 21-year-old is in intensive care in a critical condition after surgery on his kidney and liver.

Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video In another incident captured on video, a man was set on fire after arguing with protesters on a footbridge at Ma On Shan in the New Territories. He was taken to Prince of Wales Hospital. The shooting incident occurred on Monday morning as police drew weapons at various locations across Hong Kong while protesters barricaded roads and disrupted train services ahead of a general strike. Many universities cancelled classes in the wake of the shooting, and as tear-gas was fired on campuses for the first time. Clashes between protesters and police later erupted at eight locations, with rubber bullets and bean bag rounds fired at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and tear-gas fired outside the Louis Vuitton store in the Central district at lunchtime as thousands of office workers came out to protest the shooting.

The incident is likely to increase calls for an independent commission of inquiry into police treatment of protesters – which received an unexpected boost from Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s international panel of policing experts at the weekend. In a video streamed live, a uniformed traffic officer is shown drawing his pistol and then grabbing a protester in a headlock after protesters had placed boxes on a road to try to stop traffic in Sai Wan Ho at about 7.15am. The traffic officer continues to struggle with the white-clad protester he had grabbed, while pointing the pistol at a black-clad protester who walks towards them. The pistol was fired at the approaching protester’s torso. He fell to the ground. Two more live shots are fired and a second protester fell. The video captures the moment a Hong Kong policeman holds onto one protester and shoots a second protester, who was later hospitalised. Credit:Source: Cupid Producer Another video shows riot police kneeling on the protester who was hit in the abdomen and turning him over and trying to pick up his limp body. Onlookers become irate.

Radio Television Hong Kong reported an ambulance arrived on the scene six minutes later to take the protester shot in the stomach to hospital. Other local reports said the protester was conscious when he arrived at Eastern Hospital where he underwent surgery. An angry crowd gathered at the site of the incident opposite the Tai Oh building in Sai Wan Ho and was sprayed with pepper spray by police. RTHK reported that the video operator began crying when he realised what had happened. Hong Kong police confirmed in a statement: "One police officer has discharged his service revolver, one male was shot." Pistols were also drawn by police in Shatin and Tung Chung, police said.

Protesters had elsewhere thrown a petrol bomb inside a train carriage at Kwai Fong station at 8am – after the student was shot, police said. Police called for calm and denied "false and malicious" rumours that officers had been ordered to recklessly use firearms. "Police have strict guidelines and orders regarding the use of firearms. All police officers are required to justify their enforcement actions," the statement said. The protester crumples to the ground after being shot. Credit:Facebook In a press conference on Monday afternoon a Hong Kong police spokesman said the officer who shot the man had feared protesters would snatch his pistol. Another officer who had driven his motorcycle repeatedly into a crowd of protesters in Kwai Fong in a separate incident had been suspended from all frontline duties, he said.

Police had arrested 266 people, aged from 11 years to 74 years, in the past week for protest activities. Amnesty’s Hong Kong director Man-kei Tam said: "Today was another shocking low for the Hong Kong police... These are not policing measures – these are officers out of control with a mindset of retaliation." The death of Alex Chow on Friday, after head injuries sustained from falling from a multi-storey car park after police had fired tear-gas nearby, was the first death alleged to be directly related to the Hong Kong protests, which have continued for five months. Police cordon off the scene of the shooting. Credit:AP In two earlier live-fire incidents, riot police had fired shots after they came under attack from groups of teenagers. In one incident, on October 1, a student protester had been armed with a stick.

But on Monday the small number of protesters building barricades on the road using milk crates and boxes appeared unarmed. The South China Morning Post interviewed a witness, a student, who said there was no warning given and questioned why the police officer had not fired up into the sky as a warning or used pepper spray. The incident is likely to strengthen calls for Carrie Lam to appoint an independent commission of inquiry to examine police actions against protesters since June. A police cordon at the scene of the morning's shooting. Credit:AP An independent investigation into allegations of police brutality is a core demand from protesters.

Lam has repeatedly rebuffed the demand, and instead appointed an international panel of experts in September to provide advice to Hong Kong’s police watchdog as it examines complaints about the protests. But that panel, which includes Australian Michael Adams, chief commissioner of the NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, has now concluded an independent inquiry is "essential". Loading The panel said in a statement that the existing Hong Kong police complaints process lacked "the powers, capacity and independent investigative capability necessary to match the scale of events and the standards required of an international police watchdog operating in a society that values freedoms and rights". The expert panel said the Hong Kong police watchdog faced problems assembling a coherent account of the facts from police, accessing important documents and validating the accounts of police.

If the Hong Kong government boosts the powers and resources of the watchdog, it may be capable of providing an interim report on the causes and handling of the protests. "We believe it may provide a compelling case on why a deeper, more comprehensive independent inquiry in a number of respects is essential," said the experts’ statement. More than 1000 complaints about police operations during the protests have been received, including 95 allegations of assault and over 460 reports of misconduct. Loading Police confirmed on Friday that a complaint of rape had been received. Non lethal rounds and tear gas were fired at two university campuses on Monday morning in stand-offs between riot police and students. It is the first time tear gas has been fired on university campuses in Hong Kong. Students threw petrol bombs and broke windows.