'Spiderkid' exits 25th-floor flat via drainpipe
A 15-year-old 'spiderkid' scrambled out of his 25th-floor flat in Ma On Shan yesterday, shinned down a drainpipe and clambered into a flat on the floor below; the second such incident in three months.
Emergency crews were called in when a 39-year-old housewife found the boy climbing through her kitchen window.
The boy, who suffers from hyperactivity, was being cared for by his brother in their flat in Kam Fung Court on Sai Sha Road when he made his climb shortly after 2pm.
He was unhurt.
A police spokeswoman said the Social Welfare Department was following up the case.
'His brother did not discover the incident until our officers were called to the unit,' a police source said.
An investigation found nothing suspicious.
In the first 'spiderkids' case an eight-year-old girl and her six-year-old brother tried to climb down a Tin Shui Wai public housing block from their 34th-floor flat in June.
The girl became tired and ducked into a 28th floor flat. Her brother halted his perilous climb on the 25th floor, where the drainpipe ended. They suffered only minor abrasions.
The siblings told police that they were hungry and going to buy food because their mother was sleeping at home and they did not have the key to unlock the door and go out.
Their mother, 26, was arrested for alleged ill-treatment and negligence and released on bail. A magistrate ordered last month that the siblings be taken away from their parents for three years and criticised them for 'severe negligence'.
