A 70-year-old man was sent to hospital last night after a wild boar he was trying to shoo away bit him on the leg.
On.cc reports that the man, surnamed Chan, was waiting at a bus stop by the Lei Tung Estate in Ap Lei Chau, Aberdeen at around 7pm when a meter-long wild boar appeared.
Chan told reporters that wild boars are a common sight in the area.
“Sometimes they will follow you around because they think you have food to give them,” he said. “They’re used to being fed by people and they’re not scared of humans.”
Chan added that he personally doesn’t feed the wild boars, and that at last night he was trying to get the boar to go away by throwing a stone at the railing running along the curb.
The stone, however, appeared to have the opposite of its intended effect.
The boar attacked — biting Chan on the right thigh and tearing a hole through his jeans — then ran away. Chan was taken to Queen Mary Hospital for treatment.
On Facebook, the Wild Boar Concern Group responded to the incident by reminding people — yet again — not to feed wild boars, and noting that throwing objects at the creatures can cause them to panic and attack in order to protect themselves.
Ap Lei Chau, an island in the Southern district, was on record as the district with the most wild boar-related complaints of any district in Hong Kong in the first 10 months of 2018.
Chan was not the only person to throw things at a wild boar in an effort to shoo it away in recent weeks. Last month, a group of nine people drew jeers on social media after they were caught on camera throwing a bag of trash at a wild boar on Fei Ngo Shan Road.
News of the Ap Lei Chau incident followed hot on the hooves of another wild boar sighting in Admiralty earlier yesterday morning.
Apple Daily reports that the boar was spotted wandering near the Pacific Place mall at around 8am.
Police arrived at the scene to try and contain the animal, enacting their familiar wild boar containment protocol. Video shows cops trying unsuccessfully to corral the pig, which ultimately eluded their grasp after about 25 minutes, fleeing the scene and heading towards the hills.
