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Clifford Lo

Niall Fraser

Five people will appear in court this morning on murder charges following Saturday's suspected triad firebomb attack on a Tsim Sha Tsui karaoke lounge which killed 16 people.

The three men and two women, aged between 17 and 27, are all alleged members of the Sun Yee On triad society.

They will appear at South Kowloon Court.

 The charges were laid just a few hours after the blaze claimed its 16th victim, amateur photographer Hui Chi-wah, 24, who died in Queen Elizabeth Hospital at 4.54 pm yesterday.

 Two more men, aged 28 and 25, have been detained for further questioning but have not been charged.

 As the five were being formally charged, Organised Crime and Triad Bureau (OCTB) investigators swooped at the China border and arrested a Sun Yee On dai lo (big brother) who they believe may have knowledge of the firebombing.

 It is understood the men alleged to have thrown two Molotov cocktails that sparked the blaze at the Top One karaoke lounge in Prat Avenue are among five suspects still at large.

 As well as carrying out a series of raids yesterday police made an urgent appeal for witnesses.

 OCTB Superintendent Steve Tarrant said: 'We would ask anyone who saw the bombs being thrown at the building to come forward.

 'We also want to hear from anyone who witnessed anyone running away from the building in the immediate aftermath of the attack.'  Mr Tarrant also appealed for witnesses to an assault at the lounge in the early hours of January 21.

 Postmortem examinations on 15 of the victims who died on Saturday have now been completed.

 Initial findings revealed they died of smoke inhalation, although the final cause of death has yet to be confirmed pending further toxicology tests.

 Of the 14 people injured in the blaze, one of them, Lau Mei-chu, was still in critical condition in Kwong Wah Hospital last night.

 Senior anti-triad investigators said yesterday they feared the firebombing could spark retaliatory gangland attacks in Tsim Sha Tsui.

 While detectives believe the events which triggered the attack were 'trivial' and 'personal', they accept that the suspected involvement of members of the Sun Yee On and Wo Shing Wo triad societies increased the risk of retaliation.

 The head of the OCTB, Acting Chief Superintendent John Lee Ka-chiu, said: 'We are not so much concerned about territorial disputes, despite the fact that both the Sun Yee On and the Wo Shing Wo have influence in the area.

'But we are mindful of the possibility of retaliation. However personalised and trivial a dispute this was, we have a situation where people connected to two different triad groups are involved.

 'This was two individual groups; there is nothing to show that it had anything to do with orders coming from up the hierarchy. It was not sanctioned from above.'  The Sun Yee On is widely recognised as controlling as much as 90 per cent of clubland rackets in Tsim Sha Tsui East, but it faces increasing competition from the Wo Shing Wo in establishments around Prat and Hart avenues.



Firebombing suspects due in court over bar deaths