An elderly man has indeed died after being hit in the face with a brick during a clash between protesters and local residents in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

The confrontation saw the two groups exchanging volleys of bricks on a street in Sheung Shui of the New Territories. The protesters, clad in black, were eventually made to retreat, holding up their umbrellas for protection.

Video filmed from a nearby residential high-rise shows that at the start of the clash a 70-year-old man in a black coat walks out onto the street and appears to be preparing to throw something when he is nailed straight in the face by a brick which appears to have been thrown by one of the protesters.

He immediately falls to the ground.

The man, a street cleaner, was taken to the Prince of Wales Hospital where he was said to be in critical condition. Early on Friday morning, the hospital issued a statement announcing that he had passed away after 10 pm on Thursday night.

He becomes the first person to die as a direct result of the violent clashes that Hong Kong has witnessed in what has now been nearly six months of large-scale, pro-democracy demonstrations.