Journalism of Courage
Hong Kong’s anti-corruption agency has arrested eight people linked to the renovation of a high-rise apartment complex where a fire outbreak killed at least 128 people.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said on Friday that the seven men and one woman, aged 40 to 63, included scaffolding subcontractors, directors from an engineering consultancy and project managers who were supervising the renovation.
The ICAC said it searched company offices on Friday and took documents and bank records into custody.
The investigation into possible corruption began on Thursday, hours after the fire broke out.
Fire authorities said rescue work is now complete. The blaze swept through an eight-tower estate housing more than 4,600 people. The buildings were under renovation and covered in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh when the fire started on Wednesday afternoon.
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Officials earlier listed 279 people as missing, though that number has not been updated for more than a day. The incident is Hong Kong’s deadliest fire since 1948, when 176 people died in a warehouse blaze.
Police separately arrested two directors and an engineering consultant from Prestige Construction, a company that had been doing maintenance work at the estate for more than a year.
Dozens of evacuees spent the second night after the fire in a nearby shopping mall. Some said they wanted formal evacuation centres to remain available for people with greater needs.
Hong Kong is one of the world’s most crowded cities, with many high-rise estates. Rising property prices have long been a point of tension. The tragedy has drawn close attention from both the Hong Kong government and Beijing, as officials moved quickly to show they were treating the incident as a priority.
