THE newly launched newspaper Apple Daily says it fears thugs may strike again after its entire Macau consignment was dumped in the sea yesterday.
About 1,000 copies of the paper were tossed into the water by a gang that appeared at Macau's Outer Harbour wharf at 8 am, shortly after a jetfoil carrying Hong Kong newspapers arrived for distribution.
Just two hours earlier, a Giordano branch in Rua de S. Domingos was set alight. The shop chain is part-owned by the paper's founder, Jimmy Lai Chee-ying.
Witnesses said the blaze had spread from a motorcycle parked outside the store.
At the pier, a newspaper vendor said a group of 20 men had asked him to point out the pile of Apple Dailies before telling all the vendors to leave.
'The gang dumped the bundles of Apple Daily into the sea. They were quite polite. I saw no arms but many of them were carrying mobile phones,' he said.
Apple Daily editor-in-chief Loh Chan said he was worried the gang might strike again.