Acid Attack in Causeway Bay - A Close Call

Last night I went to the Jeanne Hartman Acting workshop wrap party at the RAW gallery in Causeway Bay, and afterwards we went to eat some delicious Korean food in the same building on a lower floor.  This is at the Island Beverley building right next to SOGO in Causeway Bay, one of the busiest parts of town. 

We started eating at around 9:30.  We finished just after 11. There was a TV next to our table showing a TVB Fundraising variety show that we were watching while we ate dinner.  As we were getting up to leave the 11pm news came on and the lead story was about an acid attack that just happened in Causeway Bay. 

I stopped to watch it because I quickly realized that this was literally like 50 steps outside the front door of where we were eating! :-O

Here's a news article:

Six injured in fifth Hong Kong acid attack

(AFP) –

13 hours ago

HONG KONG — Hong Kong police said Sunday they were investigating a fifth acid attack in a year after six people were injured by a bottle of corrosive liquid in a bustling shopping district.The plastic bottle was hurled in Causeway Bay, one of the city's busiest areas, around 10:00 pm (1400 GMT) Saturday, a police spokeswoman told AFP.Five women and a man suffered burns and were sent to hospital for treatment. One of the women's face and chest were badly injured, with burns covering nearly 20 percent of her body.Causeway Bay was packed on Saturday night with people celebrating the Hong Kong football team's shock victory over Japan in the East Asian Games final at a nearby stadium.Detectives are investigating but "it remains unclear whether the case is linked to the previous acid attacks", the spokeswoman said.Prior to the latest case, there have been four acid attacks in Hong Kong since last December. Three of the previous attacks took place in densely populated Mong Kok, another busy shopping quarter.Forty-six people were injured in the first attack in December last year when two bottles of corrosive liquid were tossed from a building into the street.One of the Mong Kok incidents in September was believed to be over an unpaid debt and the attacker was detained at the scene. But there have been no arrests in the other cases.In May, Chief Executive Donald Tsang pledged to catch the culprits and offered 300,000 Hong Kong dollars (12,800 US) for information leading to the arrests of those involved. As the article mentioned, this isn't the first time this has happened.  Really disturbing.... something perhaps unique to HK with its narrow, crowded streets surrounded by tall buildings.  In MK (where we were last weekend with the Legend Promo Team) they have a heavy police presence on weekends and a series of surveillance cameras set up to catch or deter this kind of stuff... I think they're going to end up doing that here too.

When we came downstairs the affected people had already been taken to the hospital and the police were doing their investigation.  This fire truck was being used to clean up the spill I assume.

This is the back side of SOGO where the attack actually happened,  the rooftop the bottle came from has an entrance between the Marathon Sports and the Disney store next to it.  

(scary thing is I was there that night and also the previous Sunday AND the following day. :-/

investigators investigating....

so far no leads and no idea if this is connected to the MK ones.  I am guessing its a copycat perhaps?

Pretty freaky!!! especially considering we were RIGHTnearby when it happened, but given the population of HK,  the likelyhood of something like this happening to you is about the same as getting struck by lightening,  so my rational mind is not too worried about it.  (Probability is the key...  I am a man of science after all!)

Either way,  from now on I'm going to be wearing my alivenotdead.com trucker hat...  its wide brim will protect my handsome face (but perhaps the mesh is not so good for the back of my head....)

UPDATE:  here's a few pics I took the next afternoon at the MTR exit:

it was dropped from up where that orange thing is hanging below that roof top shack.

lots of press standing around waiting for their remote shots for the news.

tags: Acid Attack Causeway Bay,  CWB,  citizen journalism,  Mongkok Acid Attack,  Hong Kong