Hong Kong Fire: 146 Dead, Activist Demanding Justice Presumed Arrested

Police continued to recover bodies from the residential complex in Hong Kong that was devastated by a fire, which has claimed at least 146 lives so far, while the public's demand for justice may struggle to be heard.

Local media reported on Saturday night that a 24-year-old student, Miles Kwan, who was one of the initiators of a petition demanding accountability for the worst fire the city has seen since 1948, had been arrested. The online petition, which gathered over 10,000 signatures in less than a day, has been removed.

AFP has made several attempts to contact Miles Kwan, but to no avail.

The National Security Bureau, Beijing's security arm in Hong Kong, issued a statement on Saturday supporting local authorities in their efforts to crack down on those they claim are "using the tragedy to sow chaos," without specifying any particular actions.

Hong Kong, handed back to China by the United Kingdom in 1997, has seen Beijing tighten its control following the enactment of a strict national security law in 2020 in response to pro-democracy protests.

Four days after the disaster, Hong Kong continued to mourn, while police continued to inspect the charred towers of the Wang Fuk Court complex in the Tai Po district.

More than a third of the victims unidentified

In their search, police made grim discoveries in apartments, stairwells, hallways, and even on the roofs of three buildings, bringing the death toll from 128 to 146.

AFP journalists witnessed police carrying new body bags out of the rubble.

Of the 146 victims, 54 remain unidentified.

"We cannot rule out that there are more deceased," said police representative Tsang Shuk-yin in front of the press.

The blaze broke out on Wednesday afternoon for reasons still unknown in the complex of 1,984 homes and eight 31-story towers in the northern part of the city. The complex, inaugurated in 1983, was undergoing renovations but still inhabited.

The flames spread rapidly, seemingly aided by the use of flammable materials for the renovations and the common practice in Hong Kong of using bamboo instead of metal for scaffolding.

Firefighters confirmed many survivors' accounts that the alarms had not gone off.

This is the deadliest building fire in the world since 1980, excluding fires in nightclubs, prisons, or shopping centers, according to research from the disaster database at the University of Louvain in Belgium.

Second day of mourning

Hong Kong observed a second day of mourning. Like the day before, members of the public formed a line over a kilometer long to lay flowers or say prayers at a designated area at the foot of the towers.

Hundreds of Indonesians and Filipinos, who are numerous in the territory, organized their tributes elsewhere in the city.

The Indonesian consulate reported that seven nationals perished in the fire, while the Philippine consulate reported one death.

Among the dozens of injured, 14 are in critical condition, according to hospital authorities.

A commission announced on Friday evening the arrest of eight individuals for alleged corruption related to the renovation market: two officials from the consulting office responsible for the renovations, two foremen, three scaffolding subcontractors, and one intermediary.

On Saturday, it announced three new arrests of individuals aged between 52 and 68, who had previously been detained by the police and then released.