Hong Kong mourns victims of blaze that killed 128 and counting

By John Geddie and Jessie Pang, Reuters Photo: Yan Zhao / AFP Two hundred still missing, search and rescue ended Eleven arrested in connection with city's worst fire in decades Hong Kong officials hold three-minute silence on Saturday Britain's King Charles sends condolences for 'appalling tragedy' Hong Kong on Saturday mourned the 128 people known to have died in a massive fire at a high-rise apartment complex, a toll that is likely to rise, with 200 others still unaccounted for days after the disaster. Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the city's worst blaze in nearly 80 years as they investigate possible corruption and the use of unsafe materials during renovations at the Wang Fuk Court complex. Photo: Dale De La Rey / AFP Rescue operations at the site in the district of Tai Po, near the border with mainland China, concluded on Friday (local time), though police said they may find more bodies as they search the burnt-out buildings as part of ongoing investigations. The fire started on Wednesday afternoon and rapidly engulfed seven of the eight 32-storey blocks at the complex, which were wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh and layered with foam insulation for the renovations. Search for bodies continues Authorities said the fire alarms at the estate, home to more than 4,600 people, had not been working properly. Photo: DALE DE LA REY / AFP Hong Kong leader John Lee, other officials and civil servants, all dressed in black, stood in silence for three minutes early on Saturday outside the central government offices, where flags were lowered to half-mast. Condolence books have been set up at 18 points around the former British colony for the public to pay their respects. "Our most heartfelt thoughts are with all those who have lost loved ones and with those that are now living with shock and uncertainty," Britain's King Charles said in a statement about the "appalling tragedy". At Wang Fuk Court, police officers from the disaster victim identification unit, wearing white overalls, helmets and oxygen masks, entered the charred buildings to continue their search for remains. Photo: YAN ZHAO They climbed over mounds of bamboo scaffolding that had fallen during the disaster and around large puddles of water created after firemen doused the buildings for days to try to lower the temperatures inside. Families and mourners gathered to lay flowers while some faced the grim task of looking at photographs of the dead taken by rescue workers. Authorities said on Friday that only 39 of the 128 dead had been identified. Christy Tang, 67, was among those searching for her friend, an outgoing retiree who enjoyed singing and sports. Photo: DALE DE LA REY / AFP "We checked the photos of dead bodies trying to identify her, but to no avail," she said, as she laid flowers in remembrance. Domestic workers from Indonesia and the Philippines were also caught up in the tragedy. Hong Kong has around 368,000 such workers, mostly women from low-income Asian countries who live with their employers, often in cramped spaces. Indonesia said six of its citizens died in the incident. The Philippines said one of its nationals is critically injured, another is confirmed missing, and 28 are thought to be residents of the area, but their whereabouts are unknown. Deadliest blaze since 1948 The fire is Hong Kong's deadliest since 1948, when 176 people died in a warehouse blaze, and has prompted comparisons to London's Grenfell Tower inferno, which killed 72 people in 2017. Photo: Yan Zhao / AFP Residents of Wang Fuk Court were told by authorities last year that they faced "relatively low fire risks" after complaining repeatedly about fire hazards posed by the ongoing renovation, the city's Labour Department told Reuters. The residents had raised concerns in September 2024, including about the potential flammability of the protective green mesh contractors had used to cover the bamboo scaffolding, a department spokesperson said. Hong Kong's anti-graft body said it had arrested eight people on Friday, including an engineering consultant, a scaffolding subcontractor and an intermediary. Photo: AFP / Dale De la Rey Earlier, police arrested two directors and an engineering consultant of Prestige Construction, a firm identified by the government as doing maintenance on Wang Fuk Court for more than a year, on suspicion of manslaughter for using unsafe materials, including flammable foam boards blocking windows. Prestige did not answer repeated calls for comment. Pressure group calls for change Public anger over the fire has so far been muted, a stark contrast to mass pro-democracy protests of 2019 that prompted Beijing to tighten its grip on the city. Yet some frustrated volunteers were handing out flyers near the estate on Friday and promoting an online petition demanding proper resettlement for affected residents, an independent probe into possible corruption and a review of the...

Hong Kong mourns victims of blaze that killed 128 and counting

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