Just four days before another planned mass rally in Hong Kong, the leader of a Hong Kong pro-democracy group has been taken to hospital after being brutally attacked.
Hong Kong police said Jimmy Sham of the Civil Human Rights Front was smashed in the head with hammers and spanners on Wednesday night by at least four non-ethnic Chinese assailants in Mong Kok.
Strongly condemning the attack, Sham's group said the incident would have a "chilling effect" on democracy advocates and fuel fears of politically-motivated "white terror" attacks in the city.
As tensions escalate, such "white terror" attacks have become more frequent in Hong Kong.
In late August, Sham and his assistant were set upon by two people in masks with a baseball bat and a rod.