A Hong Kong student who sustained head injuries when he fell during clashes with police died on Friday, triggering a fresh wave of outrage from the pro-democracy movement and fears of more violent unrest.

Alex Chow, a 22-year-old computer science undergraduate, was certified dead on Friday morning, according to the hospital where he was being treated.

Chow was taken unconscious to hospital early on Monday morning following late-night clashes between police and protesters in a middle-class district.

He was found lying unconscious in a pool of blood inside a car park that police had fired tear gas towards after protesters hurled objects from the building.

Although the precise chain of events leading to Chow's fall are unclear and disputed, his death marks the first student fatality during five months of demonstrations challenging China's rule of the city.

Chow's case has been embraced by the protest movement, which is demanding Beijing loosen its control over the city and allow more democratic freedoms.

"Today we mourn the loss of the freedom fighter in HK," Joshua Wong, a prominent pro-democracy campaigner, said on Twitter.

"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 gov must pay the price."

Online forums used by the largely anonymous and leaderless protest movement also quickly filled up with calls for city-wide vigils on Friday night to mourn Chow's death.

Chow was a student at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The college held its graduation ceremony Friday morning, and university head Wei Shyy paused the proceedings to announce Chow's death.

Fellow students had been holding a vigil for Chow as doctors battled to save his life.

Sources told AFP doctors had performed two operations in a bid to reduce swelling in his brain.

Chow fell from a ledge of the multi-storey car park in Tseung Kwan O, a residential area where clashes between protesters and police have occurred regularly.

Police officials have acknowledged that tear gas had been used to disperse protesters near the car park where Chow fell on Sunday night.

But they denied any wrongdoing, saying their use of tear gas was justified.

They have also denied allegations of interfering with rescuers treating the student, or blocking the ambulance that took him to hospital.

Millions of people have taken to the streets since the unrest began in June, with protesters calling for greater police accountability as well as democratic freedoms.

China has run the city under a special "one country, two systems" model, allowing Hong Kong liberties not seen on the mainland, since its handover from the British in 1997.

But public anger has been building for years over fears that Beijing is eroding those freedoms, especially since President Xi Jinping came to power.

Protesters have issued a list of demands, including fully free elections to choose the city's leader and an investigation into alleged abuses by police.

Mainland Chinese student jailed in Hong Kong protests
Hong Kong (AFP) Nov 7, 2019 - A student from mainland China arrested at a Hong Kong democracy protest was sentenced on Thursday to six weeks in prison for possession of an offensive weapon -- the city's first such case involving a mainlander in almost five months of unrest.

Since the first mass demonstrations in June, more than 3,300 people have been arrested in Hong Kong in connection to the protest movement, with some charged for rioting and illegal assembly.

Around one-third of the arrestees are students.

Chen Zimou, a 24-year-old music and English student originally from Chongqing in southwestern China, was arrested for carrying an extendable baton during a protest in July.

He denied participating in the protest and the prosecutors did not have any evidence to identify him as a protester.

He has already spent two weeks in custody after his conviction and will spend four more weeks behind bars following his sentencing in court on Thursday.

Hong Kong has been upended by the huge, often violent, pro-democracy protests which have battered the financial hub's reputation for stability.

Beijing runs the city under a "one country, two systems" model that grants Hong Kong freedoms unheard of on the authoritarian mainland, but many activists fear those liberties are being eroded.

Also on Thursday, a 16-year-old was found guilty of two counts of possessing offensive weapons, the first conviction of a juvenile since the protests started.

The boy was arrested in September when he was only 15, for carrying a laser pointer and a modified umbrella containing a walking stick.

- Yuen Long attack -

Chen, who studies at the University of Hong Kong, goes across the border to the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen every weekend to give piano lessons.

His lawyer said Chen carried a baton for self-defence following a mob attack on protesters by suspected triad gang members in Yuen Long train station -- which he must pass through when commuting to Shenzhen.

That assault on July 21 left nearly 50 people including passers-by in hospital, some with horrific wounds.

Chen has been critical of both protest violence and police brutality, writing on Facebook after his arrest that the government should carry out an independent investigation into police actions, and that top officials "should propose a compromised solution to meet the protesters' five demands".

His status as a mainland student has brought him heavy criticism from internet users across the border.

On China's Twitter-like Weibo, users blamed him for standing with "rioters" in Hong Kong, while some even went further, harassing his family.

Behind the "Great Firewall" on the mainland, news and information on Hong Kong's protests have been heavily censored with state-owned media pushing its own narrative.

The city's leader Carrie Lam has said she is "saddened" to know that many students have been arrested and some were severely injured, yet she has provided no solution to the crisis.

The first protests, in which millions marched, were sparked by a now-abandoned attempt to allow extraditions to the mainland.

But as Beijing took a hardline the movement snowballed. Protesters are now demanding an inquiry into the police, an amnesty for those arrested and fully free elections.

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