Hong Kong authorities cannot rule out theft in 16 of 142 lost property reports filed by residents of the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court housing estate, the security minister has said.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang said on an RTHK programme on Saturday that in 48 cases, the police and the residents were able to retrieve the missing items.

“About 20 per cent [of the reports] concerned flats that were severely burned, for which we, as well as the residents, believe the items had likely been incinerated,” Tang said in Cantonese. “In 30 per cent of cases, the residents could not clearly describe the items, making it difficult to follow up.”

But Tang said in the remaining 16 cases, the missing items might have been stolen, and that police were investigating.

Wang Fuk Court residents were allowed to return to their homes twice since April to collect personal belongings, months after a massive inferno in November ripped through seven blocks of the Tai Po housing estate, killing 168 people and displacing others.

The entire estate’s eight blocks have been cordoned off by the authorities since the blaze. Some residents raised alarms about a possible security loophole as they suspected valuable items at their homes had been stolen.

In March, weeks before residents made their first home trips, police arrested three men hired to carry out reinforcement works at Wang Fuk Court for allegedly stealing jewellery from unoccupied flats. Authorities said they had stepped up security at the estate since then.

Increased emergency hotlines

Tang also said on the Saturday programme that the Fire Services Department (FSD) had increased its emergency phone lines from 30 to 48 in recent months, with the figure expected to reach nearly 70 in the next two to three months.

After the FSD completes its command system upgrade early next year, there will be 100 available hotlines, Tang added.

The public inquiry into the blaze previously heard that hundreds of emergency calls during the fire had overloaded the FSD’s system, leading to backlogged calls and failed connections. In one case, a woman died after the police failed to pass her call to the FSD.

Tang said on Saturday that the 30-line system had been enough for handling fires in the past until the Tai Po blaze.

“We realised 30 lines were not enough in an event like this, so we felt the need to immediately increase that. But we have to strike a balance between resources and needs, and we think that 100 lines will be enough,” Tang said.

He also mentioned the government’s proposal to revamp the city’s fire safety laws, saying it aims at ensuring the FSD has the “final responsibility” in the oversight of buildings’ fire risks.

After the revamp, the FSD will actively refer structural fire hazards, such as exit points for workers in a building’s fire staircase, to the responsible departments and follow up on the matter, Tang said.

The proposed amendments will cover the Fire Services Ordinance and three subsidiary pieces of legislation on fire safety equipment in buildings, the professionals who oversee them, and the FSD’s powers to abate fire hazards, the government announced last week.

A one-month public consultation regarding the proposed revamp is underway. Residents have until June 25 to submit their views in writing.

A Hong Kong company appointed by the government to administer the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court has asked the Lands Tribunal to postpone a statutory deadline for holding a homeowners’ meeting.

Hectar Pun, a lawyer representing Hop On Management, told the tribunal on Monday that the firm had faced challenges in verifying signatures and finding venues for the meeting.

Hop On, a subsidiary of real estate giant Chinachem Group, applied to the Lands Tribunal to postpone the May 13 deadline for notifying owners of the meeting and the June 13 deadline for convening the meeting.

Judge Gary Lam noted that Hop On had made an ex parte application – a request for a court order without the presence of the opposing party – and told the firm to consider the matter from the perspective of the flat owners.

He also asked whether the court should postpone the deadline every time Hop On encountered difficulties. Pun replied that the tribunal has the judicial powers to make delays as long as there is “good cause” to do so.

Judge Lam said that the court would hand down its decision at 3pm on Tuesday.

Hop On was appointed by the government to take over administrative duties at Wang Fuk Court from the board of the owners’ corporation weeks after the deadly November fire at the Tai Po housing estate.

The Lands Tribunal granted the government’s appointment of the firm in early January.

Homeowners’ petition

Hop On said last month that it would apply to the tribunal to extend the deadline for holding a homeowners’ meeting after it received a petition with 247 handwritten signatures asking the firm to meet with flat owners to discuss long-term resettlement and related financial matters.

The total number of signatures supporting the petition exceeded the 5 per cent threshold needed to convene a meeting stipulated by the Building Management Ordinance.

See also: Tai Po fire: Residents say ‘no choice’ but to accept buyback as deadline looms

According to the ordinance, the management committee should issue notice of the meeting within 14 days and hold the general meeting with owners within 45 days.

Wang Fuk Court resident Jason Kong, one of the petition’s organisers and a former board member, was arrested for alleged government loan fraud last month, two weeks after delivering the petition.

After he was released from police detention, he said he would no longer take media interviews.

Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog has urged claw machine operators to exercise greater transparency amid a surge in complaints over the past two years.

The Consumer Council said on Monday that the number of complaints related to claw machines had surged nearly nine times over two years, from 16 cases in 2023 to 138 in 2025.

“The complaints revealed that some machines displayed or positioned prizes in a way that was prone to misunderstanding; machine settings and gameplay explanations were unclear; and prize quality varied significantly,” the watchdog said.

Citing a complaint, the watchdog said a customer successfully grabbed a box after attempting 40 times and spending around HK$200 – only to discover it was empty.

The shop owner refused to provide a refund, saying the box was displayed only for decorative purposes and was not a prize. After the customer complained to the council, the owner apologised to the complainant and fully refunded the HK$200.

At another shop, a player reported that the claw machine automatically dropped the toy when it reached the top of the machine, preventing it from being delivered to the prize chute. Suspecting that the company had rigged the machines, he lodged a complaint.

“The Council urges claw machine operators to enhance transparency by clearly displaying, on the machine or in a conspicuous location, the charges, gameplay, mechanisms and winning conditions, as well as the contact details of the responsible person,” it said.

It also called on operators to avoid setting an excessive or unreasonable level of difficulty, “which could undermine consumer rights or create negative perceptions.”

The watchdog also advised customers to read the rules carefully and to carefully check the quality of prizes.

They should stop playing and contact staff members if they observe any abnormal settings, it added. If no employees are on site, customers can take videos of gameplay as evidence.

“Whether a prize can be clawed out is influenced not only by machine settings and prize placement, but also by skill and luck. Consumers should weigh expected expenditure against the value of the prize to avoid over‑consumption or addiction,” it added.

The council’s statement comes as the government moves to regulate claw and pinball machines by implementing a licensing regime.

The Home and Youth Affairs Bureau said in a proposal to the Legislative Council last month that the low-maintenance business opportunity, which involves gambling elements or addiction risks, may need to be subject to restrictions to protect players.

Coal miners in the sleepy Chinese county of Qinyuan sometimes dine at Zhang’s skewer eatery, especially on payday, so a gas explosion that killed at least 82 of these workers left her feeling sorrow for their bereaved families.

The tragedy unfolded in northern Shanxi province, with preliminary findings showing the company operating the mine had committed “serious” violations, state media reported Saturday.

The blast caused China’s worst mining disaster in 17 years, with search efforts ongoing to find two people still missing, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

A total of 247 workers were underground at the time of the blast, which occurred at 7:29 pm (1129 GMT) on Friday at the Liushenyu coal mine, according to state news agency Xinhua.

“This is the first time such a big accident has happened here,” Zhang, who only wanted to be known by her surname, told AFP.

Many of these men were their families’ main source of income, she said.

“Think about it. He’s at that age where he has both elderly parents and young children to support. Then he works in the coal mine, goes down the shaft and never comes back up,” Zhang added.

“How are they supposed to go on living?”

‘Someone’s father’

Police blocked AFP reporters from entering a road leading to the mine but a building bearing its name with the Chinese characters lit up by orange lights was visible in the distance.

Security officers sat by the curb, strictly guarding the gantry of the roads, only allowing authorised vehicles in. Ambulances and police cars entered.

A security guard at the entrance brushed off AFP’s questions as to whether any progress in rescue efforts had been made, saying he didn’t know anything.

But the guard said he hadn’t slept at all Friday night because work was too busy with people coming in and out.

At a gas station near the mine, workers shooed AFP journalists away when they were asked about the mining disaster.

“We can’t just casually comment on these things,” one man told AFP, without giving his name.

“We’re not aware of the details — we don’t know the exact cause or the specific situation.”

He said he hoped the number of deaths “isn’t that high”, before he hurried back inside the station.

At another restaurant selling Sichuan cuisine, a worker with the surname Li told AFP he had noticed ambulances whizzing by his place, frequently patronised by coal mine workers.

But he said he hadn’t been too emotionally affected, despite initially being surprised by the death toll.

“Working in a coal mine, this kind of accident is inevitable,” he said, adding that he hoped the missing people would be found soon.

A total of 128 people were sent to hospital for treatment, CCTV said.

One of the hospitals that took in people injured in the mine tragedy was cordoned off with tape. AFP spotted multiple police cars surrounding its perimeter.

Qinyuan county is peppered with coal mines, and outside one an electronic sign reads: “Go to work happy, go home safely”.

Zhang, grilling meat skewers on a stove, said she had that same wish: for the missing miners to be found safe and sound.

Even if the pay was good, coal miners were “basically earning money with their lives at risk”, she lamented.

She expressed hope that authorities would do all they could to prevent accidents like this and increase mine safety.

Zhang said she feels for families who lost loved ones in the mine explosion.

“He is also someone’s son, someone’s father, someone’s husband,” she said.

An outspoken resident who survived Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades has said he will not give any more media interviews after his release following an arrest over alleged government loan fraud.

“Going forward, I won’t be responding to anything, OK?” Wang Fuk Court resident Jason Kong told reporters outside Tsuen Wan Police Station shortly after midnight on Saturday. “Thank you all for your care and support over the past few months.”

Kong and his wife were reportedly arrested on Thursday on suspicion of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud.

The couple, both directors of an interior design company, allegedly used fraudulent means to obtain several hundred thousand dollars in loans under the government’s Special 100% Loan Guarantee scheme, which was launched during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sources familiar with the matter told HKFP on Friday that they were being detained at a police station.

The arrests came around two weeks after Kong was involved in organising and delivering a petition to Hop On Management, the government-appointed administrator for the Tai Po housing estate, asking the firm to hold a meeting with homeowners.

Kong, who was a member of the Wang Fuk Court owners’ board when the fire broke out in November, had also spoken with the media on other issues, such as long-term resettlement.

However, upon his release on Saturday, he refused to answer reporters’ questions about whether he was under investigation for other matters, as well as whether he would still handle matters relating to a petition for an owners’ meeting.

Asked whether he was still able to speak for residents, Kong said that he had “no comment.”

“I hope that everyone can stay safe and healthy, and once again I thank everyone for their support,” he said.

“I hope that residents can settle down as soon as possible,” Kong added as he got into a taxi.

Hop On, which received a petition with 247 handwritten signatures on April 29, has yet to hold an in-person meeting with homeowners. The management firm said last week that it would apply to the Lands Tribunal to extend the statutory deadline for the meeting.

Kong and other fire survivors previously launched a similar petition online in March, signed by more than 400 homeowners and representatives of those killed in the fire.

Hop On rejected the demand, while the Home Affairs Department said the signatures might have been forged.

Kong also testified before an independent committee investigating the blaze last month, saying that government agencies had “failed in their duties” despite receiving complaints about the renovation project at the estate.

A former head of the government’s housing checking unit has said he was “unaware” that his surveyors notified contractors ahead of inspections at Wang Fuk Court, the site of Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades.

Rudolf Lau, who headed the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) when the tragedy struck, testified on Friday, the 24th day of hearings into the cause of the massive blaze.

Just two days earlier, Andy Ku, a senior ICU maintenance surveyor, told the independent committee investigating the fire that the unit had alerted the renovation consultant ahead of site checks before the Tai Po housing estate went up in flames in November.

Victor Dawes, lead counsel for the committee, had previously said that the inspection unit’s alerts may have tipped off the construction firm and given it opportunities to conceal wrongdoing.

Lau, who retired in February, was asked by Jason Yu, counsel for the committee, on Friday whether he was aware of the advance notices, local media reported. Lau replied that he was “unaware” of the practice.

‘By the book’

Yu also grilled Lau on the ICU’s regulatory role, asking the reason for the unit’s oversights. Lau said the unit’s monitoring regime for minor works relied on contractors and consultants to self-regulate, as well as on complaints from residents.

Yu challenged him, saying that unscrupulous individuals responsible for the maintenance works would not report themselves.

“Did the ICU leave the responsibility for inspection to residents?” Yu asked, noting that an average resident would not have been able to spot irregularities such as illegally altered windows and fire escape openings.

Lau admitted there were blind spots in the unit’s regulatory regime but said it had reviewed its system since the Wang Fuk Court fire by conducting unannounced inspections.

The former ICU head was also questioned about an inspection requirement that the unit was not made aware of until after the fire. Asked whether the ICU operated only “by the book,” blindly following Buildings Department (BD) protocols, Lau answered in the affirmative.

“The [BD] manual did not require on-site safety inspections, so we did not do them,” he said.

Wrapping up Friday’s hearing, committee chair David Lok said the government’s cross-departmental investigation report will be published on the committee’s website by May 15. The next round of hearings will continue after mid-June, he added.

School getting ready for its 80th birthday makes a modern addition to its uniform options.

Tanabe Junior High School in the town of Kyotanabe, Kyoto Prefecture, is going to be marking the 80th anniversary of its founding next year. That’s definitely a good opportunity to look back on its history and celebrate its traditions, but the school has no intent of having its thinking be stuck in the past, as shown by its plans to be the first public junior high school in Japan to have a hoodie as its uniform.

Currently, the standard uniform for boys at Tanabe is a gakuran, a straight-collared button-up jacket-like garment worn with slacks, and for girls it’s a sailor suit blouse-and-skirt combo. These are both considered pretty traditional outfits in the Japanese school system these days, as it’s becoming increasingly common for school uniforms to have blazers instead.

▼ Gakuran

Tanabe does allow female students who don’t want to wear the sailor suit to opt for gakuran or dress shirt and slacks instead, but the old-school uniforms aren’t necessarily unpopular. For the last three years, the school has polled students on whether they want to keep the current uniforms or switch to a more modern blazer, and for three years in a row, the students have voted to keep the gakuran and sailor suits. However, later this year they’ll have another option, a zip-up gray hoodie, with black trim and the school’s emblem on the left side of the chest. The design, which was decided on by the students, can be seen on the school’s website here.

“We came to the decision [to introduce a hoodie uniform] taking into consideration that we are in a diverse and genderless era,” said the school in a statement. To be clear, the hoodie isn’t just for use while commuting to school or extracurricular events, either. Not only can students wear it in class, it can also be worn to such important occasions as the school’s graduation ceremony and welcome ceremony for newly enrolled students.

Aside from being comfortable and modern, the hoodie uniform also has the advantage of being machine washable (most conventional school uniforms require dry cleaning), and though at 9,000 yen (US$58) it’s not a particularly inexpensive hoodie, that’s still about half the price that students currently have to pay for gakuran or sailor suit tops. Students aren’t required to commit to just one style of uniform, either, so if they want to purchase both the hoodie and the pre-existing option, and wear whichever they feel like on that day, that’s OK too.

The hoodie uniform will be available starting in November.

Source: Jiji, Yomiuri Shimbun, Tanabe Junior High School
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Wikipedia/Nesnad
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