Hong Kong police bomb disposal experts were called to Wong Chuk Hang MTR station after a suspected explosive device was found near a building there on Monday morning.
Police received a report about the suspected device — which proved to be a fake — at around 7am, and train services were suspended and an exit of Wong Chuk Hang station was closed until around 9am.
Officers from the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Bureau collected the one-foot long item — which was said to resemble an artillery shell, and was found by a scavenger — and placed it onto a bomb detector on the scene, ultimately determining that it was not in fact an explosive device.
Officers from the crime unit were also called to the scene to follow up, reviewing the CCTV footage of the building near where the object was placed.
Today’s scare was at least the seventh instance in the past two months of actual bombs or bomb-like objects being found on railway tracks, station platforms, public toilets, hospitals and a public library.
Some of the previous incidents have been linked by the authorities to public calls for the full closure of Hong Kong’s border with the mainland to stem the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
