Tension between Chinese and British escalated after Lin's destruction of opium at Humen in June 1839 and the killing of a Chinese Superintendent of Trade in China, Charles Elliot, led three British ships to Kowloon to purchase food.
Frustrated by failure to lift the Chinese ban on food provision, he ordered one of the ships to open fire.
After several hours' exchange of shelling, the British ships ran out of ammunition and withdrew.
This heralded a couple of skirmishes which constituted the prelude to the First Opium War.
Credit : History Museum of HK.
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