Hong Kong police defused two homemade bombs at a local Catholic school, in a reminder of the potential for escalation in the restive financial center after a lull in protest violence.
Police on Monday evening dismantled two improvised explosive devices at Wah Yan College in Wan Chai, Bomb Disposal Officer Alick McWhirter, a senior bomb disposal officer for the Hong Kong Police Force’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau, told a news briefing on Monday.
The radio-controlled bombs were complete, fully functional and ready to be activated by mobile phone, McWhirter said, adding that the bombs appeared intended “to kill and to maim people.”
“Given the quantities of the explosive and the fragmentation, had these devices been placed and had they functioned, they would have killed and injured large numbers of people,” McWhirter said.
The devices contained a total of about 10kg of high explosives, fragmentation material and shrapnel.
Yesterday, police said they had no suspects so far and no further updates.
The bombs were discovered on a portion of Wah Yan property that was outside the gates and accessible to the public, the South China Morning Post reported, citing a statement from the school.
The bomb scare comes after pro-democracy demonstrators on Sunday held their largest march in months, which although largely peaceful, signaled that Hong Kong’s unrest would likely continue into the new year.
Li Kwai-wah (李桂華), senior superintendent of the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau Bureau, said the devices were found by a cleaner who called the police.
Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive, Carrie Lam, mentioned the “highly destructive” explosive devices in a regular briefing yesterday.
She said it was “worrying” that 40 percent of the roughly 6,000 people arrested during the political turmoil have been students, and that teachers have been among them.
“When violent acts enter schools, it will undermine the safety of all students and their parents,” Lam said.
“I have asked all school principals to seriously follow up with all the teachers who have been arrested,” she said, adding that schools should “ensure all students stop participating in any unlawful activities and stay away from violence.”
She would head to Beijing on Saturday for annual meetings to update Chinese officials about the situation in Hong Kong, Lam said.
She sidestepped a question about an Apple Daily report that Chinese officials were considering replacing some of the less popular officials in her cabinet, telling reporters that reshuffling officials was not her “immediate task.”
“My first priority now is really to restore law and order in Hong Kong, and to ensure Hong Kong could continue to move ahead,” Lam said, adding that “rumors and speculation” were not helpful.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese