Many Malaysians go to Hong Kong during the school holidays.Please take extra care when walking the streets or in shopping arcades.
Hong Kong's Acid Scare
| Written by Maria Thuesen Bleeg | |
| Monday, 14 December 2009 |
An unknown assailant baffles police, frightens tourists and shoppers
Hong Kong's police have been stymied for the seventh time in a year by unknown assailants who throws bottles of acid off buildings into crowded pedestrian areas in what has always been presumed to be one of the safest cities in the world. The latest attack, almost exactly a year from the first, occurred Saturday night when bottles were thrown off a roof in the Causeway Bay shopping area that injured six people, two seriously.
The attacks have emptied out popular shopping areas as tourists and shoppers have shunned them out of fear. Police believe the latest attack is linked to three others in the crowded Mong Kok shopping and entertainment area in Kowloon. The first took place on Dec. 12, 2008, when 46 Mong Kong Christmas shoppers suffered acid burns.
The attacks have prompted increased police surveillance, anxiety among locals and visitors, and the suspicion that at least one copycat might be involved. Calls have been made for "eye-in-the-sky" cameras to be installed in busy areas, but it would seem technologically impossible to cover all the possible areas where an attack could occur.
The attacks have injured more than 100 people, according to police records. Police have installed HK$1.7 million worth of cameras in the Mong Kok area, stepped up patrols and offered rewards, but the attacker has so far avoided detection and has given no reason for the attacks.
The attacks have confounded law enforcement. Hong Kong, according to a report to the 9th International Anti-corruption Conference by Ian McWalters, a senior director of public prosecutions, remains one of the safest in the world in terms of street crime, with a crime rate at roughly the same level as Singapore and lower than New York, London or Tokyo. The very randomness of the attacks argues against intimidation by the city's infamous triads of shopkeepers or extortion and protection racketeering against bars or billiard halls.
Nor is acid throwing common to either Hong Kong or mainland China. Only one incident, called China's first, was reported in Shanghai in 1986. It is common in South Asia as a form of revenge for sexual or marital refusals in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh and Afghanistan, blinding or maiming to women.
To some extent, the attacks call up the mysterious random poisoning of dogs along the five kilometers of Bowen Road above Central. So far, an unknown person has killed 22 dogs since 1989 and has never been identified or apprehended. The person leaves poisoned food along the path, one of the most popular hiking areas in the city and a magnet for people to walk their dogs to get away from crowded flats.
Prior to Saturday's attack, the latest was on Nov. 1 in the Sai Wan Ho neighborhood when someone tossed a bottle of acid at a noodle salesman, burning his leg. In late October, according to police records, beer bottles full of acid were tossed onto the street in the Sham Shui Po neighborhood. No one was injured in those incidents. Police presence has been increased after the most recent incidents, and neighborhood leaders in Sham Shui Po have called for surveillance cameras there, too. Police told the local press they think the most recent attacks aren't related to the ones in Mong Kok. Read more.
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