A corrosive liquid which dripped onto Hong Kong shoppers from a mall ceiling yesterday was feared to be the work of an acid attacker, but police later said that clogged pipes and drain cleaner were to blame.
At around noon yesterday, a corrosive liquid dripped onto eight people — two male and six female, aged 11 to 60 — taking an escalator within an Aeon shop on the second floor of the Skyline Plaza in Tsuen Wan, Apple Daily reports. The acid fell from two small holes in the ceiling.
The eight injured people were sent to Yan Chai Hospital to be treated for minor injuries to their heads, necks, and arms, senior police inspector Raina Cheng from Tsuen Wan District told reporters.
Police investigation later showed that the acid was a drain cleaner used by handymen to clear out a clogged pipe in the mall’s staff lounge on the third floor on Saturday morning. According to Cheng, the acid had been diluted with water, but the pipe, being old and degraded, leaked anyway.
While no arrests have been made and no “deliberate action” has been found so far, Cheng did not rule out any criminal element to the case.
Between 2008 and 2010, Hong Kong saw a spate of mass acid attacks which injured over 100 people, which were mostly concentrated in Mong Kok, one of the city’s busiest shopping districts.
