Harvey Specter
12-12-2009, 07:45 PM
HONG KONG (AFP) - Hong Kong police said Sunday they were investigating a fifth acid attack in a year after six people were injured by a bottle of corrosive liquid in a bustling shopping district.
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The plastic bottle was hurled in Causeway Bay, one of the city's busiest areas, around 10:00 pm (1400 GMT) Saturday, a police spokeswoman told AFP.
Five women and a man suffered burns and were sent to hospital for treatment. One of the women's face and chest were badly injured, with burns covering nearly 20 percent of her body.
Causeway Bay was packed on Saturday night with people celebrating the Hong Kong football team's shock victory over Japan in the East Asian Games final at a nearby stadium.
Detectives are investigating but "it remains unclear whether the case is linked to the previous acid attacks", the spokeswoman said.
Prior to the latest case, there have been four acid attacks in Hong Kong since last December. Three of the previous attacks took place in densely populated Mong Kok, another busy shopping quarter.
Forty-six people were injured in the first attack in December last year when two bottles of corrosive liquid were tossed from a building into the street.
One of the Mong Kok incidents in September was believed to be over an unpaid debt and the attacker was detained at the scene. But there have been no arrests in the other cases.
In May, Chief Executive Donald Tsang pledged to catch the culprits and offered 300,000 Hong Kong dollars (12,800 US) for information leading to the arrests of those involved.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/091213/world/hongkong_crime_acid
.
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The plastic bottle was hurled in Causeway Bay, one of the city's busiest areas, around 10:00 pm (1400 GMT) Saturday, a police spokeswoman told AFP.
Five women and a man suffered burns and were sent to hospital for treatment. One of the women's face and chest were badly injured, with burns covering nearly 20 percent of her body.
Causeway Bay was packed on Saturday night with people celebrating the Hong Kong football team's shock victory over Japan in the East Asian Games final at a nearby stadium.
Detectives are investigating but "it remains unclear whether the case is linked to the previous acid attacks", the spokeswoman said.
Prior to the latest case, there have been four acid attacks in Hong Kong since last December. Three of the previous attacks took place in densely populated Mong Kok, another busy shopping quarter.
Forty-six people were injured in the first attack in December last year when two bottles of corrosive liquid were tossed from a building into the street.
One of the Mong Kok incidents in September was believed to be over an unpaid debt and the attacker was detained at the scene. But there have been no arrests in the other cases.
In May, Chief Executive Donald Tsang pledged to catch the culprits and offered 300,000 Hong Kong dollars (12,800 US) for information leading to the arrests of those involved.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/091213/world/hongkong_crime_acid
.