Police recover three tonnes of illegal fireworks and firecrackers worth about $300,000 from a truck which crossed the Lok Ma Chau border on Sunday night.
Superintendent Leung Ka-ming, of New Territories North regional crime unit, said yesterday the load - concealed among vegetables and seized in Castle Peak Road - had been potentially lethal.
'Our bomb experts told us that if an explosion had gone off, all structures in a 50-metre radius would have been seriously damaged or levelled and it could have caused severe injury or death within a radius of 100 metres.'
The fireworks, packed in boxes and surrounded by vegetables, had been made in Dongguan and Zhongshan in Guangdong, he said. Officers said the fireworks were intended for illegal sale to villagers in the New Territories to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Villagers, especially elderly people, believe setting off fireworks will bring them good luck, health and wealth.
Police said yesterday's consignment was the biggest seizure of fireworks in 16 months. The record seizure was made in September 2000 when eight tonnes of fireworks and firecrackers were seized in Pat Heung. Police have seized about 3.6 tonnes of fireworks so far this year.