Update | Neighbours shed light on 'reclusive' man killed in suspected Kowloon blast suicide
Man found dead in Shek Kip Mei blast came across to neighbours as the unsociable sort and clues indicate he could have taken his own life
A picture emerged yesterday of an antisocial man who otherwise appeared normal to neighbours as police looked into Saturday's gas explosion in his flat on a Kowloon public housing estate that left nine firefighters injured, several of them seriously.
Investigations showed the lone man, whose cause of death remained unknown, was twice convicted of shop theft and spent a month in jail early this year, a police source said.
The case bore the hallmarks of a suicide, although the man, 56, had no history of mental illness or any chronic disease, he said.
"The door was sealed by Sellotape and locked from the inside," typical of suicides, he said.
The deceased, who was named locally as Chan Chi-fai, was believed to have obtained chemistry-related professional qualifications in the late 1980s and worked at a laboratory for two years before quitting his job because of "headaches".
"He was a recluse who had neither a girlfriend nor any friends at all, and had been living on social welfare since July," the source said.