A primary school student on her way to school in Sha Tin district was the target of a mysterious paint attack Thursday morning.
The six-year-old girl was walking to school in Tai Wai at around 8am when a man ran up to her, splashed her back with orange paint, and fled, according to Apple Daily.
The man was reportedly dressed head to toe in black, and was not wearing a mask.
Pictures taken at the scene show splotches of paint just meters from the entrance of the school. The girl’s uniform, which she later changed out of, was also stained with paint.
Police and paramedics who arrived at the school took the girl to the hospital to get checked and cleaned up.
Her mother and grandmother met her at the hospital and expressed disbelief at the incident.
Asked by an Apple Daily reporter why her daughter might have been attacked, the mother said she “doesn’t know what’s going on” and that police are investigating.
Her daughter did not appear to be injured, and was chatting normally with her mother and grandmother at the hospital.
Read more: Sha Tin kindergarten splashed with orange paint in apparent triad attack
Paint attacks are normally associated with triad activity. Gang members are known to splash red paint onto shopfronts as a debt-collecting intimidation tactic. The offices of pro-democracy lawmakers and activists, and sometimes the figures themselves, have also been the target of red paint attacks carried out by pro-Beijing groups with triad affiliations.
The school said it does not “seriously condemns” the incident and hopes police can identify the attacker as soon as possible.
According to local media, the girl is a student at a primary school in Shui Chuen O, a neighborhood further north in Sha Tin. Because the campus is under renovation, students and teachers are using an empty school in Tai Wai, where the attack occurred.
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