Police have arrested a female cleaner after a hotel window she opened fell 16 stories, striking and killing a woman as she walked by the building this morning, authorities have confirmed.
The incident happened at around 10:25am when the window — measuring 144 centimeters by 30 centimeters — and its metal frame fell from the Mira Hong Kong on Nathan Road and struck a female passer-by.
At a press briefing held at 4pm today, Senior Inspector Chan Ka-ying from the Yau Tsim District Crime Squad said that the window fell after it was opened by a cleaner on the 16th floor in order to clean it at the time.
Chan said police have arrested the cleaner, adding that they will look into the potential liability of other parties, such as the hotel and its management.
Chan would not say what crime the cleaner was arrested for, only saying that she was the one who opened the window, and that their investigation was still ongoing.
The woman killed was a 25-year-old female tourist from the city of Foshan, in Guangdong province. Chan confirmed that the woman had just arrived in Hong Kong that morning with her boyfriend.
Photographs by local media at the scene show the woman’s unconscious body on the pavement, a pool of blood by her head and her shards of glass around her body, with the window’s metal frame next to her.
She was rushed to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she was declared dead at about 12:16pm, hospital officials said.
The boyfriend was also taken to hospital with minor injuries, but has since been discharged.
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