Police have arrested a woman who used a dustpan to assault an elderly cleaner in a Sham Shui Po public toilet on Wednesday evening.
According to Jocelyn Chau, a North Point district councillor who happened to witness the incident, the woman was yelling at the 81-year-old cleaner at a public toilet around 6:30pm on Ap Liu Street.
The woman then ran out of the toilet, rushed back in, then used a dustpan to strike at the head of the cleaner, Chau wrote in a Facebook post.
By the time Chau had exited her toilet stall, the woman had already dashed off, leaving the cleaner sitting on the floor in pain.
“[The woman] hit with so much force that the handle of the dustpan snapped, and the dustpan was broken in to pieces,” Chau said.
It is unclear what caused the altercation. The woman was not wearing a mask and was also barefoot, Chau added.
Despite suffering an egg-sized swelling to her head and an injury to her hands, the cleaner told Chau initially she did not want to hold the perpetrator accountable or go to the hospital because she was afraid of losing her job.
Police who arrived at the scene acted coldly towards the cleaner, Chau said, telling her there is nothing to be done if she does not want to open a case into the attack.
“Well, tell your manager what happened yourself then,” Chau recalled police saying to the cleaner.
The cleaner eventually agreed to go to the hospital, and police arrested a 46-year-old woman, surnamed Ng, on Thursday.
According to Apple Daily, Mak has been working as a cleaner for close to 40 years and currently juggles two sanitation jobs. She lives with her 60-year-old daughter.
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