Police investigate destruction of buildings which housed at least 10 residents
DANNY MOK AND ALLEN AU-YEUNG
UPDATED : Tuesday, 15 March, 2016, 1:43pm
The squatter huts were reduced to piles of metal sheets and wood. Photo: Felix Wong
Residents of a remote Sheung Shui village were shocked when bulldozers appeared and flattened their homes within minutes.
According to villager Lee Siu-wah, who is also chairman of the Kwu Tung North Development Concern Group, the vehicles tore down the single-storey squatter homes at about 8am on Monday morning, without any prior notice.
The buildings were home to at least 10 residents from two households. The families had been living at the site for several decades.
Police have cordoned off the area. Photo: Felix Wong
Some witnesses tried to stop the men on the bulldozers, but they did not respond. The operators left the site soon after the job were done.
No one was injured.
The residents have contacted the police, and officers are trying to contact the owner of the bulldozers.
Residents are pointing the finger at Team Glory Development, a subsidiary of Henderson Land Development Company.
A Henderson spokesman told the media on Monday that the site where the squatters were located did not belong to Henderson, and that both Henderson and Team Glory had nothing to do with the case.
A female resident surnamed Lau said she had received a lawyer’s letter from Team Glory in 2009 claiming that part of the site belonged to the firm and asking the squatters to move.
“How could you tear down the houses that we were living in like this? We could have sat down and talked. Why adopt such dirty tricks?” Lau asked.
A male resident surnamed Wong said: “My father settled here in the 1950s, joined by my grandfather and me from the mainland in the 1960s – three generations of painstaking work all gone in just few minutes.”
At the site located off Po Lau Road on Tuesday morning, police had cordoned off the area where the squatter huts used to stand. An officer was seen patrolling around the perimeter of the site, which was about the size of a small soccer field.
The huts were smashed beyond recognition – what remained at the site were large piles of scattered metal sheets and wood.
The construction vehicles are believed to have come from a site near the destroyed homes. Pictures Photo: Felix Wong
Near noon, Wong’s relatives, including his son, arrived at the site to survey the aftermath.
Yellow construction vehicles, suspected to have been involved in the demolition, were found not far from the site, hidden among some trees.
“Our photos and many of our identification documents are still inside,” said Wong’s older brother, 70-year-old Wong Sing-mu.
“I just hope it doesn’t rain,” he said.
The elder Wong, who had lived in one of the huts since 1963, moved out in the 1980s but regularly returned to see his brother.
There are piles of debris where the huts used to be. Photo: Felix Wong“My brother was stunned. He had just gone out to have breakfast, and he got a call from his neighbours saying his house was no more,” said the elder Wong.
“I can’t believe this could happen in Hong Kong. What if there were people still inside the huts at the time?” he added.
Police are treating this as case of criminal damage. No one has been arrested. The border district investigation team is working on the case.
Kwu Tung North lies within the government’s northeastern New Territories development plan, under which villages in Kwu Tung North and Fanling North would be removed to make way for new development.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1925114/i-hope-it-doesnt-rain-misery-hong-kong-villagers-left-pick
