A Czech television crew was on scene in Hong Kong to film the moment a crowd of students suddenly began to flee from police following a tear gas and rubber projectile attack against demonstrators.
Barbora Šámalová, a Chinese correspondent for public broadcaster Czech TV, was reporting when the crowd began its stampede.
“Our Czech TV correspondent is reporting on the siege of a local university from behind the battle lines. Suddenly, police forces appear in the shot and the crowd begins running away,” Czech TV wrote on Facebook.
Michal Kubal, the Czech TV chief foreign editor, also commented on the incident via Twitter. He said that this was one of the “moments when he is proud to have the chance to work with such professionals.”
The footage shows a tense atmosphere at the local Polytechnic University campus, which protesters and students have occupied to protest both the governments of Hong Kong and mainland China.
The police surrounded the campus on the weekend and fought with the students using tear gas and rubber projectiles. Young protesters responded with Molotov cocktails and even bow and arrows.
The protests in Hong Kong are directed against the government of the former British colony, which in 1997 came back under Chinese administration and is currently managed according to the principle of one country, two systems. The principle was meant to guarantee a democratic government and autonomous privileges in Hong Kong.
Critics say China is gradually reducing Hong Kong’s freedoms, which Beijing denies. According to the Hong Kong police, 4,491 people between the ages of 11 and 83 have been arrested since the beginning of the protests.
At the same time, the police reject allegations of brutality and say their actions are justified, claiming radical protesters often throw stones and Molotov cocktails at security forces as well as destroy and burn shops and metro stations.
Since the beginning of June, protests in Hong Kong have claimed two lives.
A young man fell from a roof after police fired tear gas at protestors. A seventy-year-old also suffered a fatal injury after being hit with a brick during demonstrations.
