GLORIA CHAN GLORIA.CHAN@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 04 October, 2015, 1:57pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 04 October, 2015, 2:06pm
Customers at the McDonald's came and went for 24 hours before an employee realised the woman was unconscious and called police. Photo: AP
Police are trying to confirm the identity of a homeless woman who was found dead in a 24-hour McDonald’s outlet at a public housing estate in Kowloon Bay yesterday morning.
The case has raised concern among social welfare groups about the lack of support for people living on the fringes of society.
The woman, aged around 50 to 60 years, was found slumped over her table in a quiet corner, 24 hours after she entered the restaurant at Ping She Estate, while other customers were unaware what had happened.
She was 1.6 meters tall, with short black hair and wearing black-rimmed glasses. She was dressed in a gray long-sleeved overcoat, white t-shirt and black trousers, and wore slippers. Although she had a bag and a wallet on her, she had no identification documents.
It is believed she was a street-sleeper who regularly spent her nights in McDonald’s.
At around 8:30am yesterday, a McDonald’s employee called police after finding the woman unconscious and cold at her table. She was confirmed dead at the scene.
According to police, there was nothing suspicious about her death upon initial investigation.
CCTV footage showed the woman entering the restaurant at 8:39am the previous day – 24 hours before she was found dead – and sitting at a table near the bathroom. At 1:20am yesterday, she suddenly slumped over the table. Nobody paid her any attention and customers ate their late-night meals around her.
It was back to bustling business as usual while police carried out their investigations yesterday morning. The area she had sat in was cordoned off, and customers were navigating around it to find seats.
Her body was taken away to a mortuary through the back door at around 11:30 am, and by 1pm all tables were open to customers.
McDonald’s would only say it was cooperating with the police investigation. The fast food chain added that the Ping Shek outlet had been thoroughly disinfected and was operating as usual.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1863953/homeless-woman-found-dead-hong-kong-mcdonalds-24-hours-after-she-sat
