A fight at a bar in Tsim Sha Tsui late Monday ended in the death of a worker after he and other staff told customers to leave as the pub would close at midnight.
According to Apple Daily, a group of around 20 customers were not happy about being asked to depart from the Austin Road bar. (Under social distancing restrictions, bars must cease operating at 12am.)
The customers used bottles to attack four bar workers, outnumbering them and knocking one unconscious. The 36-year-old sustained serious head injuries and leakage of cerebral fluid. Paramedics who reported to the scene rushed him to the hospital, but he died before receiving emergency treatment.
The customers fled before police arrived.
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Another bar worker had to be lifted onto a stretcher to the ambulance, while two others who were slightly injured were able to walk by themselves.
One woman told Apple Daily that she was passing by when she heard loud noises coming from the bar. Shortly after, she said, around a dozen people in black ran down a flight of stairs nearby, some of them not wearing masks and spewing profanities.
Police confiscated boxes of evidence, including glasses, beer cans and a bloodied broom from the bar the next morning.
Authorities have classified the incident as a case of homicide. Further investigation is underway, local media reports.
Bars, nightclubs and karaoke bars reopened on September 18 following a steady fall in COVID-19 cases, but the establishments must close at midnight. This is the first known case of workers having to confront hostile customers over the regulation.
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