Hong Kong police arrest 3 over mishandling of unconscious man found on trolley in street and later declared dead
- Police alerted to man lying on trolley outside Merit Industrial Centre in Kowloon on Sunday afternoon, who was later declared dead at Queen Elizabeth Hospital
- Officers arrest three suspects living in industrial building for preventing lawful burial of body after security footage shows trolley was used to move man
Hong Kong police have arrested three suspected illegal workers over the mishandling of an unconscious man who was declared dead after he was dumped outside an industrial building in Kowloon.
The force was alerted to the incident after the unconscious man was found lying on a trolley at an entrance to the Merit Industrial Centre car park in To Kwa Wan around 3.35pm on Sunday.
The man, 40, had been covered with a blanket and smelled of alcohol.
Chief Inspector Marco Law Ching-hon of the Kowloon City district crime squad said on Monday the man’s head was resting on a “slippery floor” warning sign.
He was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei, but pronounced dead at 3.55pm.
Officers from Kowloon City’s district crime squad arrested three men in a flat in the building for prevention of the lawful burial of a body after security footage showed the trolley was used to dump the man outside the car park entrance.
Law said the man did not have any visible injuries and that a postmortem would be carried out to establish the cause of death.
He confirmed that alcohol consumption would be one of the directions of the investigation.
He added all four men had travelled from mainland China’s Fujian province at different times, using two-way exit permits issued for entry to the city from across the border.
The men had been living in the city for at least two months.
They were said to have been socialising and drinking alcohol in the flat when one of the men fell ill and passed out.
Officers traced the three men during a floor-to-floor search of the building.
One of the trio, aged between 35 and 51, is also suspected of overstaying. The three were said to have claimed they were unemployed.
But investigators would not rule out they were illegal workers, a source said.
People in the industrial building said the flat was more than 1,000 square feet and was often used by people from the mainland.
They added renovation tools and fans were often seen outside the flat.
“We obtained information about the person who rented the flat, but we cannot disclose more at this moment,” Law said.
