Two flee police in high-speed car chase
Two suspects were under arrest last night over a high-speed car chase across the New Territories in which two police officers were injured and seven vehicles damaged, including a police motorcycle and a double-decker bus.
Police are still investigating whether both detained men were in the car during the chase, which ended with its occupants fleeing after evading police for 10 kilometres.
The occupants escaped on foot after the chase along local roads and highways, running red lights and sometimes travelling in the oncoming lane, for about an hour and a half between Yuen Long and Tuen Mun.
One of the two suspects in detention last night, identified only as a 23-year-old with the family name Ngai, was arrested at the Lok Ma Chau border checkpoint at 7.30am yesterday, apparently trying to flee to Shenzhen.
The other man in custody is the car's 27-year-old registered owner, who told police after his arrest at home after midnight that he had sold the car, a Nissan Cefiro, to Ngai several weeks ago.
Police are trying to establish whether the registered owner was in the car during the chase. They are also looking for the owner of a learner driver's licence that they found in the car, and which they suspect may belong to a person who was on board during the chase.
The chase began at about 6pm on Wednesday, after a traffic policewoman stopped the car in Yuen Long, at the junction of Shap Pat Heung Road and the Yuen Long Highway, after she saw the driver talking on his mobile phone.
'The driver lowered his window and pushed the policewoman away before speeding off,' a police officer said. 'She was hit by the car's side mirror and suffered minor injuries.'
The car then turned on to the Yuen Long Highway and headed towards Tuen Mun.
'It travelled at high speed, sped through red lights, made illegal U-turns and ran on the wrong side in an attempt to evade police,' the officer said.
'Our officers once lost it in Tuen Mun for 15 to 20 minutes and later tracked it down in the same district. The pursuit then continued.'
During the chase in Tuen Mun, the car slammed into a minibus on Shek Pai Tau Road before turning into Ming Kum Road.
When it was overtaken and blocked by a pursuing police motorcycle in Ming Kum Road, it rammed the motorcycle, injuring the policeman. After that collision, the car ran out of control, hitting five other vehicles including a double-decker bus, in the same street.
No other injuries were reported.
The chase ended when the car collided with a container parked outside Po Tin Estate in Hing Fu Street, Tuen Mun, at about 7.30 pm. The driver and passenger jumped out and ran towards a hillside.
Despite calling in the help of a Government Flying Service helicopter, police could find no trace of the car's two occupants in the vicinity.
'We are still trying to establish who was at the wheel at the time of the incident and find out how they escaped,' an officer said.
Last night, police said Ngai and the car's owner were still being detained in Tuen Mun police station but that no one had been charged. Officers from Tuen Mun district crime squad are investigating.
