Five months after Hong Kong imploded, the upheaval against the establishment has claimed its first casualty. Chow Tsz-lok (22), who fell from a parking lot during demonstrations, is the first to die from injuries sustained during protests that have convulsed the island nation. In a way, the city’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where he passed away, symbolises the enormity of the tragedy. As China has signalled its desire to bring Hong Kong under tighter control, fears that Chow’s death ~ on account of brain damage ~ might lend a new dimension to the relentless turmoil are dangerously real.

The tragedy is likely to escalate protests and fuel public anger at the government as demonstrators continue to demand an investigation into the behaviour of the police, who have been accused of using excessive force on protesters… at the behest of China. Hong Kong is facing its worst political crisis in decades as hundreds of thousands of residents, many of them students and young people have taken to the streets since June to press for greater democracy, among other demands.

The protests, ignited by a now-scrapped extradition bill for people to be sent to mainland China for trial, have evolved into wider calls for democracy, posing the biggest challenge for China’s President, Xi Jinping, since he took charge in 2012. Confrontations between police and protesters have grown increasingly violent with injuries on both sides, but hitherto no one had died in violence. Not that the police has not targeted the protesters. On 1 October, police shot a protester in the chest with a live round and another in the leg on 4 October, but both recovered.

In September, a journalist was blinded in one eye after being hit by a rubber bullet fired by police. To the fundamental demand for the abrogation of the extradition bill has now been added the equally critical clamour against Beijing’s meddling and the restoration of freedoms associated with a functioning democracy. Predictably enough, the protesters are furious over the tragedy. At a “citizen’s press conference” held by protesters following the news of Chow’s death, demonstrators said: “In this tragic moment, we plead to all to bear in heart and mind who the real culprits behind Tsz-lok’s death were. His fall was not an unfortunate accident. It was an intentional manslaughter executed by tyranny and the police force.

Today we mourn the loss of the freedom fighter in HK. We will not leave anyone behind ~ what we start together, we finish together. Given the losses suffered by HK society in the past month, the government must pay the price.” Clearly, the demonstrators have used emotive expressions to sum up a gruesome tragedy. There seems to be an overwhelming refusal to concur with the official version of an accident. Implicit is the distinct hint that the death was the outcome of calculated malevolence. Clearly, the island is on the edge.