Special burial offered for hostage victims
The families of the eight victims of the Manila hostage tragedy will be offered burial in a special cemetery reserved for brave non-civil servants.
If the families accept, they will be the first people buried in Tribute Garden, opposite Gallant Garden at the Wo Hop Shek public cemetery where civil servants killed in the line of duty are interred.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said after visiting Jason Leung Song-xue, the 18-year-old hostage who has severe head injuries, that the government would take care of survivors and families affected by the tragedy.
'The government has decided that if their families agree, we will arrange that all the eight victims killed can be buried permanently in Tribute Garden where they can rest in peace. But the final decision is up to the families involved,' he said.
If they accept, they will be the first to be buried at Tribute Garden since it was established in 2003.
Wong Fuk-wing, 46, the volunteer who was killed while trying to save victims trapped in the rubble of an orphanage during the Qinghai earthquake was offered burial there after being posthumously awarded the gold medal for bravery,
But his family wanted him buried at a public cemetery in Chai Wan where his father was also buried.
