The cause of the high-rise fire remains under investigation, amid public outrage over missed fire risk warnings and evidence of unsafe construction practices.
Police said the confirmed death toll had risen to 146 after they finished searching the five burned towers. Some bodies were found in stairwells and on roofs where residents tried to escape. More than 40 people are still missing in the fire, police said, according to Reuters.
Mourners queued for more than a kilometer along the banks of the canal near the burnt-out Wang Fuk Court apartment complex to lay white flowers for the dead. Some have attached messages addressed to the victims.
The smell of smoke was still in the air four days after a fire quickly spread through the exterior of seven residential towers being renovated in Hong Kong’s northern Tai Po district.
Joey Yeung (28), whose grandmother was burned in the fire, said she came with her family feeling sorrow for the victims and anger toward those responsible.
– I can’t accept that. So today I came with my father and family to lay flowers – Yeung told Reuters.
Seven Indonesian domestic workers and one Filipino maid were confirmed among the dead, and dozens of migrant workers are still missing. Hundreds of people attended an open-air prayer meeting in central Hong Kong for the city’s Filipino community on Sunday morning.
Police on Saturday detained 24-year-old Miles Kwan, who was part of a group that launched a petition calling for an independent investigation into possible corruption and a review of construction oversight, two people familiar with the matter said.
An online petition promoted by the group had collected more than 10,000 signatures by Saturday afternoon before it was closed.
A second petition with similar demands was launched soon after by a Tai Po resident living abroad. By Sunday, it had more than 2,700 signatures.
A fire that engulfed seven apartment towers near the border with mainland China has shocked Hong Kong, prompting authorities to launch criminal and corruption investigations.
China’s national security authorities on Saturday warned individuals not to use the disaster to “return Hong Kong to the chaos” of 2019, when massive pro-democracy protests rocked Beijing and caused a political crisis.
Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the fire, while they investigate possible corruption and the use of unsafe materials during the complex’s renovation.
Rescue operations ended on Friday, although police say they may find more bodies as they search the dangerous, burnt-out buildings.
(Vijesti.ba / FENA)
