An autopsy was being carried out yesterday on a Hong Kong pensioner who was thrown out with the rubbish after lying dead in his home for up to five months.
In a case that has shocked police and welfare workers, Au Yeung Wan-shing, 74, lay dead just 15m from his nearest neighbors without anyone checking on him.
He was only discovered when a laborer hired to clear out the apparently empty two-room house in the city's rural Sai Kung district threw his body out with the rubbish.
Au Yeung, who lived on social security payments that went directly into his bank, last withdrew money from his bank in nearby Sai Kung in May and may have been dead since.
The laborer, who police are trying to trace, inexplicably threw the home's entire contents along with the old man's body down a wooded bank outside the home.
Police were called when the new tenant saw body parts sticking out the debris. He at first thought it was a mannequin.
Remains
Officers dug through the undergrowth for 12 hours to recover the remains, which had been scattered over a wide area after being hurled out of the house. An arm is still missing.
Sai Kung divisional commander Mark Johnson said: "We have a lot of veteran police officers who are deeply shocked by this case. No one has come across anything like this before.
"The police operation was hazardous. Officers had to work in the heat in an area infested with mosquitoes and flies.
"The working conditions were extremely unpleasant and stressful."
Ho Hei-wah who heads a social concern group described the case as "very shocking."
"Traditionally in the villages, relationships are very strong among the neighbors," he said.
Hong Kong Council of Social Services executive director Christine Fang Meng-sang described Au Yeung's cases as "the nightmare of many poor elderly people living on their own."
Around 100,000 elderly people live alone in the city of 6.8 million people, often with no family or relatives to check on them.
Welfare groups say around a third of single elderly people struggle by on half or less of the average wage.
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