Police arrested nine suspects on Sunday in connection with the stabbing of two men whose car was ambushed on a busy road the previous day in an attack that is believed to be linked to infighting within a triad gang.
The arrests came about after video of the attack was posted online on Saturday afternoon. The clip shows a group of seven masked men, armed with metal pipes and knives, coming out of two silver cars and attacking a white BMW that had been rammed into a concrete wall by the attackers’ two vehicles on Prince Edward Road East at about 3:30pm that afternoon.
Police say that the attackers then abandoned the two silver cars they used to trap the white BMW and fled the scene in a third car.
Speaking to reporters at a press briefing held yesterday afternoon, Chief Inspector Tsang Ting-pan of the Regional Anti-Triad Unit Kowloon East said that the white BMW that was attacked was carrying four men, two of whom were immediately sent to hospital with injuries to their arms.
After receiving the police report, Tsang said anti-triad officers took action in the early hours of Sunday morning and arrested seven men, aged 24 to 31, in raids in several areas including Ma On Shan, Mong Kok and Tsing Yi.
On Sunday afternoon, two more men aged 35 and 42 were arrested in Kwun Tong and Tseung Kwan O.
During preliminary investigations, police found an abandoned car, believed to have been the getaway car, at the Kai Ching Estate in Kowloon Bay. Inside the vehicle, they found surgical face masks, baseball caps, metal pipes, and knives.
According to Apple Daily, police believe the suspects and the two men who were attacked belong to the Sun Yee On triad gang and the brutal attack is connected to a turf war between the Kwun Tong and Tseung Kwan O factions of the triad society.
The newspaper reports that the leaders of the two factions — referred to as “Ah Diu” and “Shao Kwan” — had a falling out three years ago during a power struggle for a top position.
Later that day, more arrests were made as part of an anti-triad operation codenamed Levington. Including the nine men arrested in connection with the attack, a total of 23 people were arrested on suspicion of a number of offenses including conspiracy to wound with intent, conspiracy to wound, possession of offensive weapons, resisting arrest, and taking conveyance without authority.
Police have not ruled out further arrests.
The Sun Yee On triad gang are also believed to be connected to a very similar attack on a man in Tai Kok Tsui on New Year’s Eve. In that case, the victim was sent to a hospital after his car also got sandwiched between two other cars and seven masked men emerged from those cars to attack the victim and his vehicle with knives.
