A Hong Kong rights protester has been beaten at the entrance to the Chinese consulate in Manchester, UK. The police were able to bring the situation under control.
A video recording of the incident at a demonstration by around 40 people in front of the consulate on Sunday was leaked onto the Internet. According to British police on Monday, a group of men emerged from the consulate and began removing placards and flags belonging to the protesters.
Then a man was dragged onto the consulate premises and beaten. “Fearing for the man’s safety, officials intervened and removed the victim from the consulate premises,” police said. Video shows a group of men beating a man who is lying on the ground.
The British broadcasting company BBC reported that the victim was a democracy activist from the Chinese Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. “They dragged me in, they beat me up,” the man told the station. According to police, he had to spend the night in a hospital.
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Liz Truss expressed “deeply concerned” about the incident on Monday. The chair of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Alicia Kearns, called for an “immediate investigation” by Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Secretary of State James Cleverly.