The Hong Kong protests have become more than riots with sticks and batons. Now Hong Kong police are shooting protesters as one viral video now shows.

During the demonstrations that were to occur 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule in China, things became violent as Hong Kong police clashed with protesters in Hoi Pa Street in Tsuen Wan. As you can see in the video, an officer seemed to be surrounded by protesters and took out his gun.

He fired at the protester, striking him in the chest as the protester swung a pipe at him.

*Warning*: The following video and images contain graphic content.

#Breaking: just in – Video of the moment when riot police in #HongKong, shot the protestor in the chest with a live ammunition round with a handgun pistol in the city. #China pic.twitter.com/k8vTKYlMGU — Sotiri Dimpinoudis (@sotiridi) October 1, 2019

Another angle shows the officer firing at the protester.

#Update: Just in – Other shocking video angle footage of when a protestor got shot critically in the chest by a live ammunition round by riot police in #HongKong. In this video you see the pistol being taken out and shot. #China pic.twitter.com/fdenhPeJtP — Sotiri Dimpinoudis (@sotiridi) October 1, 2019

According to reports, the protester was a high school student and was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital with a bullet wound 3cm from his heart. His condition is currently unknown.

He is just a high school student.. his left chest was injured with profuse bleeding, currently being resuscitated at Queens Elizabeth Hospital, the bullet was found 3cm from heart… lets pray for him… he is just a kid#CommunistChcina wanted to kill us all #tiananmen2019 pic.twitter.com/FaqUUePNC7 — W (@wwHKer) October 1, 2019

The protests, which began after China attempted to pass laws that would put Hong Kong residents further under its jurisdiction, have only escalated thanks to China’s overt attempts to force Hong Kong under its boot with police action. While it can be understood that a police officer would panic when surrounded as he was, the officers have been encouraged to use violence since the beginning.

It’s likely that someone being shot would be the inevitable result.

It’s also likely that this won’t be the last protester who is shot. Things will continue to escalate, and if they do then we may once again see the Chinese military become involved and we’ll have another Tiananmen Square incident with many young protesters laying dead.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, but it would appear that neither the Chinese government nor the protesters are backing down. It will likely get worse before it gets better.