Man Arrested Over Chopper Attacks In Tseung Kwan O

Police have arrested a 50 year-old man on suspicion of launching a chopper attack on three people at a pro-democracy ‘Lennon Wall’ in Tseung Kwan O in the early hours of Tuesday.

One of the victims, a 26-year-old reporter for the Hong Kong Economic Journal, is in a critical condition after suffering knife injuries to her neck and back. A 35 year-old woman is in a stable condition, while a 24-year-old man has been discharged.

At a daily briefing, chief superintendent John Tse of the Police Public Relations Branch said the man was arrested at the Lowu crossing at around 3pm, and arrested on suspicion of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He said officers were on the scene just four minutes after receiving reports of an attack at 1.36am, but the attacker had already fled.

A low-quality video purportedly capturing the attack inside a pedestrian tunnel near King Lam Estate has been circulating on social media

A witness said a middle-aged man had become agitated during an argument with the three people before attacking him with a meat cleaver.

He’s then said to have fled towards Chung Ming Court nearby.

Officers subsequently found a chopper at the scene of the attack, and one at Chung Ming Court.

Tse told reporters the swift arrest “shows the police take all violent acts very seriously and will bring all culprits to justice regardless of their background.”

The Hong Kong Economic Journal said the critically-injured journalist had worked for one of its supplemental publications, but was currently on leave after resigning earlier this month.

This is just the latest attack at so-called ‘Lennon Walls’ that have sprung up across the city over the past two months. The walls are covered with pro-democracy and anti-extradition messages, but have been the scenes of physical altercations between people who sympathise with the protesters, and those who take a dim view of their actions.