Rumour Buster: separating truth from fiction amid the Occupy protests
From traumatic ambulance delays to fears of further police action, the South China Morning Post sets the record straight on rumours circulating on social media and heard on the street.
Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor tendered her resignation after the use of tear gas by police last Sunday.
Lam said she has no intention of resigning.
People's Liberation Army soldiers were deployed to help Hong Kong police repress the protests. Pictures of armoured personnel carriers on the roads were circulated on social media.
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said the government had no intention of seeking help from the PLA.
Protesters broke the window of a police vehicle. A photograph of it was circulated online.
The photograph was digitally altered.
A policeman's relative has posted a message claiming riot police had fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowds last Sunday.
Police said they did not use rubber bullets.
An audio message allegedly sent by student leader Joshua Wong Chi-fung that went viral last Sunday asked people to occupy Mong Kok.
Scholarism said the message was fake. Wong was in police detention that day.
A letter, supposedly written by Chinese University vice chancellor Professor Joseph Sung Jao-yiu and shared online, criticised the opposition camp for acting like communists to fight for an anti-communist goal. He also allegedly described the Occupy Central protests as "red guard style".
Chinese University said the letter was fabricated.
An ambulance taking a pregnant woman to Ruttonjee Hospital in Wan Chai was delayed because of a roadblock set up by protesters. As a result, her baby suffered brain damage.
The Hospital Authority said there was no report of such an incident. And there is no obstetrics unit at Ruttonjee Hospital.
Civil servants working at government headquarters in Admiralty last Monday were asked to evacuate the complex immediately, prompting speculation that large-scale police action was under way to break up the rally.
There was a notice asking departments to allow staff to leave the office earlier to avoid heavy traffic during peak hours because of the impact of the protests.
A woman went on an RTHK phone-in programme last Monday claiming that her family could not get to hospital in time to say goodbye to their dying daughter-in-law that day. She blamed the blockade set up by protesters. She said she and her family got stuck in traffic for four hours while trying to cross the harbour tunnel.
There was no report of serious traffic congestion in any of the harbour crossings last Sunday.
An audio message sent by a social worker, circulated online last Monday, warned that triad members were being paid HK$800 each to recruit vandals to descend on the Mong Kok protest site.
The social worker admitted it was only hearsay.
