Mong Kok acid attacks
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The Mong Kok acid attacks (旺角高空投擲腐蝕性液體傷人案) were incidents in 2008, 2009, and 2010 where plastic bottles filled with
corrosive A corrosive substance is one that will damage or destroy other substances with which it comes into contact by means of a chemical reaction. Etymology The word ''corrosive'' is derived from the Latin verb ''corrodere'', which means ''to gnaw'', ...
liquid (
drain cleaner A drain cleaner is method for unblocking sewer pipes or clogged wastewater drains. The term may also refer to a mechanical device such as a plumber's snake, drain auger, toilet plunger, or similar device. Occasionally, the term is applied to a pl ...
) were thrown onto shoppers on
Sai Yeung Choi Street Sai Yeung Choi Street () are two streets in Mong Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong, namely, Sai Yeung Choi Street South (西洋菜南街) and Sai Yeung Choi Street North (西洋菜北街). Although officially two streets, local people seldom make distinc ...
South, Hong Kong, a pedestrian street and popular shopping area. A reward, originally
HK$ The Hong Kong dollar (, sign: HK$; code: HKD) is the official currency of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is subdivided into 100 cents or 1000 mils. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is the monetary authority of Hong Kong and ...
100,000, for information about the perpetrator or perpetrators, was raised to
HK$ The Hong Kong dollar (, sign: HK$; code: HKD) is the official currency of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is subdivided into 100 cents or 1000 mils. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is the monetary authority of Hong Kong and ...
300,000 following the second incident, and cameras were to be installed in the area following the December incident. The third incident occurred the very day the cameras were turned on. The fifth incident happened after Hong Kong government announced its new strategies against the incident.


13 December 2008 incident

The first incident occurred on 13 December at 5:15pm near the intersection of Sai Yeung Choi Street South and
Shantung Street Shantung Street () is a street in Mong Kok, Kowloon in Hong Kong. It spans from Ferry Street in the west to Yim Po Fong Street in the east. Features Major landmarks including Langham Place and Macpherson Playground are situated along the str ...
. Two bottles of an unspecified corrosive liquid were hurled into the crowd, possibly from the 12th floor of the
Yuen King Building Yuen is a Cantonese Chinese surname, which can refer to: 袁, 阮, 元, 源, 原 and 苑 *Yuan (surname), the Pinyin transliteration of the Han Chinese surnames 袁, 元, 源, 原 and 苑 *Ruan (surname), the Pinyin transliteration of the Han Chin ...
, onto a popular pedestrianised street area below where many were doing Christmas shopping. The bottles hit the ground and exploded, splashing 46 people with corrosive fluids that burned through clothes and skin. People took refuge in nearby shops as water was poured onto the spilled acid to dilute it. All injuries were minor and the injured were all released from the hospital by the next day. Two days after the attack,
Hong Kong Chief Executive The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is the representative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and head of the Government of Hong Kong. The position was created to replace the office of governor of H ...
Donald Tsang Sir Donald Tsang Yam-kuen (; born 7 October 1944) is a former Hong Kong civil servant who served as the second Chief Executive of Hong Kong from 2005 to 2012. Tsang joined the colonial civil service as an Executive Officer in 1967, occupyi ...
personally came to examine the area. Investigation of the attack left the intersection closed for approximately two hours on 16 December as police re-enacted the incident. Investigators threw bottles of chalk powder from several vantage points to gauge the exact point they might have been thrown from. Water was also poured on the ground to provide a better examination of splash and flow patterns. Door to door interviews were also performed. That same day, a
reward Reward may refer to: Places * Reward (Shelltown, Maryland), a historic home in Shelltown Maryland * Reward, California (disambiguation) * Reward-Tilden's Farm, a historic home in Chestertown Maryland Arts, entertainment, and media * "Rewa ...
of
HK$ The Hong Kong dollar (, sign: HK$; code: HKD) is the official currency of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is subdivided into 100 cents or 1000 mils. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is the monetary authority of Hong Kong and ...
100,000 (approx. US$12,800) was offered for any information about the attack, officially classified as " throwing corrosive fluid with intent to do grievous bodily harm," a formula usually shortened to "throwing corrosive fluid with intent". The maximum punishment for this crime is
life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
. An individual claiming to be a Triad member later claimed online to have committed the attack, but was never traced. A month after the attack,
Yau Tsim Mong District Yau Tsim Mong District is one of 18 districts of Hong Kong, located on the western part of Kowloon Peninsula. It is the core urban area of Kowloon. The district has the second highest population density of all districts, at . The 2016 By ...
Council voted to install four
CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...
cameras in various areas with the specific aim of deterring litter-hurling in general (throwing objects from buildings is a problem in several areas of Asia) and prevent similar incidents from occurring. One of the cameras is to be installed on Hollywood Plaza at
Soy Street Soy Street () is a street in Mong Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It starts from Tak Cheong Street in the west, crosses several major streets including Nathan Road, and ends near Waterloo Road. The section between Nathan Road and Sai Yeung Choi St ...
and Sai Yeung Choi Street South. The system, which is encrypted and whose images are stored for only ten days, could be extended at later dates.


16 May 2009 incident

A second incident, almost identical to the first, occurred on 16 May 2009 again in Sai Yeung Choi Street South. Two bottles were again thrown, this time near the
Soy Street Soy Street () is a street in Mong Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It starts from Tak Cheong Street in the west, crosses several major streets including Nathan Road, and ends near Waterloo Road. The section between Nathan Road and Sai Yeung Choi St ...
intersection, some 150 meters from the original attack. The attack occurred around 4:47 pm and resulted in injuries to 30 persons, all but one of whom were released from the hospital the same day. A 16-year-old female remained in the hospital for several days afterward. Donald Tsang again came to visit the area and urged the district council to accelerate the installation of cctv cameras. The next day, the original reward for information was increased to HK$300,000. There is suspicion (though police commissioner Tang King Shing later admitted there was no formal indication of a link) that both cases were committed by the same perpetrator, although the nature of the liquid thrown in both cases has not been made public as of 20 May. Early on that date, a second reconstitution was performed, with a number of bottles (several filled with acid) thrown from several buildings. The area was cordoned off and nearby shop were covered, with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department cleaning afterward. Twenty buildings, the Pakpolee Commercial Centre and Foo Tai Building were thus identified as "possible locations". An unrelated incident had happened approximately one week prior to the second attack. Four persons were injured on 4 May, in
Tsuen Wan District Tsuen Wan District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is located in the New Territories and is served by the Tsuen Wan line of the MTR metro system. Its area is 60,7 km². Its residents, who mostly live in Tsuen Wan Town, en ...
when a woman attempting to clear an
ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22 ...
nest spilled a mix of
bleach Bleach is the generic name for any chemical product that is used industrially or domestically to remove color (whitening) from a fabric or fiber or to clean or to remove stains in a process called bleaching. It often refers specifically, to ...
,
acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...
and
insecticide Insecticides are substances used to kill insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against insect eggs and larvae, respectively. Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and by consumers. Insecticides are claimed to b ...
to the street below. The incident, which injured a police officer and a baby girl, was initially thought to be a possible copycat of the December attack. The woman, who had just moved to the 12th-story flat on Hueng Woo Street, was arrested.


8 June 2009 incident

A mere few hours after the announced cameras had been turned on, a third attack occurred around 8pm on 8 June at the intersection of Nelson and Sai Yeung Choi streets. Some three hundred police officers flocked to the area in an attempt to capture the culprit. The modus operandi was very similar to the first two attacks, and resulted in 24 injuries, including several tourists. Yau Tsim Mong district councillor
Hau Wing-Cheong Hau or HAU may refer to: People and characters * Hau (mythology), a Polynesian wind god * Hau (surname) * Hau Latukefu (AKA Hau, born 1976), Australian hip hop musician and radio host * Hau, a character in Pokémon Sun and Moon Places * Hậu ...
noted: "This acid throwing is obviously a challenge to the police. It is an unscrupulous crime. The formal operation of the sky eyes was not supposed to be known by outsiders and the district council had planned to announce it after a meeting on Tuesday." Several detective teams were dispatched from other units, such as the anti-triad unit and blue-beret police. In light of the poor quality of the recorded images, which may turn out to be unusable, councillor Henry Chan Man-Yu called the HK$1.7 million system "a waste of money", and another councillor criticised the government for failing to inform the councillors of the purchasing and tendering process. The attack elicited outraged reactions from several Hong Kong politicians, who noted, like Wing-Cheong that the attack was clearly a direct insult to the police. Legislative Councilor
Paul Tse Paul Tse Wai-chun, JP (, born 1959) is a Hong Kong solicitor, who claims himself as the "Superman of Law". He also owns a small travel agency and was elected to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong for the tourism functional constituency in ...
Wai-Chun noted his worry about Hong Kong's reputation for safety, since several tourists had been injured: "We don't want our good name being tarnished overnight by the attacker. Police have to gear up to make an arrest to help regain the confidence of tourists." The government's total bounty for information soon reached HK$900,000, while Donald Tsang called the attacks "cold-blooded and malicious" in a televised broadcast. Meanwhile, local business owners have begun to grow concerned and many now stock water in case of a fourth incident.


6 September 2009 incident

An incident unrelated to the mass attacks of the summer occurred the evening of 6 September at
Tung Choi Street Tung Choi Street () is a street situated between south of Sai Yeung Choi Street and Fa Yuen Street in Mong Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is one of the most well-known street markets in Hong Kong. Its southern section, popularly known as Ladies' ...
. A shopkeeper couple (Ah Dee and Tam Chan) were assaulted by a man who had come to recover some
HK$ The Hong Kong dollar (, sign: HK$; code: HKD) is the official currency of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is subdivided into 100 cents or 1000 mils. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is the monetary authority of Hong Kong and ...
300,000 that they owed him for handbag supplies. In the middle of a brief altercation, the man, identified solely as "Tsz", whipped out a bottle and splashed the pair with acid, causing severe injuries to both and minor injuries to nine others. He was captured on the scene, the wife having chased him, shouting, and thus attracting the attention of nearby police officers. Ah Dee had to be transferred to Queen Mary Hospital for emergency skin graft. Others were treated at
Kwong Wah Hospital Kwong Wah Hospital is a 1,141-bed Charitable district general hospital in Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong. Located on 25 Waterloo Road, the hospital was founded by the Tung Wah Group in 1911, and managed by the Hospital Authority since 1991. It provid ...
and, except for his wife, discharged later that evening.


9 January 2010 incident

On 10 January 2010,
Police in Hong Kong The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) is the primary law enforcement, investigative agency, and largest disciplined service under the Security Bureau of Hong Kong. The Royal Hong Kong Police Force (RHKPF) reverted to its former name after the t ...
arrested a man suspected of carrying out an acid attack in
Temple Street A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called church (building), churches), Hindui ...
. 30 people were injured in this attack. On 11 January 2010, police ruled out the arrested man as a suspect.


References

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External links


Hong Kong Police Force
2008 crimes in Hong Kong 2009 crimes in Hong Kong 2010 crimes in Hong Kong Crime in Hong Kong Acid attack victims Unsolved crimes in China Attacks in Hong Kong Attacks in China in 2008 Attacks in China in 2009 Attacks in China in 2010