The death toll in Hong Kong’s Tai Po fire has now reached 146, local media reports, with 79 injured and scores of people still missing.
The latest figures come as authorities continue with a criminal probe into the causes of the blaze and crack down on relief volunteers and activists they suspect of hijacking aid efforts to foment anti-government discontent in the wake of what appears to have been a preventable tragedy.
In the criminal probe, three members of a Prestige Construction – two directors and an engineer – were rearrested by graft busters yesterday after being released by police, who had held them on suspicion of manslaughter.
Prestige Construction was carrying out large-scale renovations at Wang Fuk Court last Wednesday, when seven of the housing development’s eight apartment buildings were burned. Authorities suspect that non-compliant materials used in the refurbishments, including highly flammable window seals, fuelled the terrifying speed with which the flames spread, trapping many residents.
[See more: Four ways you can help victims of Hong Kong’s Tai Po fire]
Meanwhile, an unnamed man has been arrested by national security police on suspicion of seditious intent.
He is thought to be university student Miles Kwan, the initiator of a petition making “four demands” of the authorities in the wake of the fire. The language is highly provocative in the Hong Kong context, since the violent anti-China protests that rocked the city in 2019 and 2020 were centred around the so-called “Five Demands.”
National Security police have also arrested Kenneth Cheung Kam-hung, a former district councillor, as well as a female volunteer on suspicion of seditious activity, but details are scant.
Hong Kong concludes a three-day mourning period for the fire victims today. So far, HK$1.1 billion has been raised in funds for survivors of the tragedy. The Macao government has donated HK$30 million to relief efforts and stepped up fire prevention awareness locally in the aftermath of the blaze.
