The death toll from Hong Kong’s high-rise apartment blaze rose to 159 as authorities arrested six people on suspicion of deactivating some fire alarms during maintenance work at the housing complex.
The youngest person who died in the fire was a one-year-old, police said. The oldest was 97.
Police said they have completed a search for bodies inside all seven of the eight high-rise residential towers ravaged in the fire that first broke out a week ago and took more than 40 hours to be extinguished. About 30 people were still reported missing.
“We have not finished our work yet,” Commissioner of Police Joe Chow told reporters, adding that officials found suspected human bones in different apartments and would attempt DNA testing to identify them.
In this photo released by Hong Kong Police Public Relations Branch, members of the Disaster Victim Identification Unit work in an apartment in the aftermath of the devastating fire at Wang Fuk Court.Credit: AP
Officials will also continue to search through piles of fallen bamboo scaffolding to check if any remains or bodies were buried there, he said.
The deadly blaze broke out at Wang Fuk Court, in the northern suburban district of Tai Po, which was undergoing a months long renovation project.
The city’s anti-corruption body and police said on Tuesday that they had arrested 15 people, including directors at construction companies, as authorities probe corruption and negligence.
Six others, from a fire service installation contractor, have since been arrested. They were believed to have deactivated some fire alarms at the housing complex during the renovation works, according to police, and were suspected of making false statements to the fire services department.
The initial cause of the fire is still under investigation.
AP
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