TEMPERS flared at a Wong Tai Sin housing estate yesterday as residents confronted police and workers trying to start work on a controversial hostel for the mentally handicapped.
About 100 defiant residents of Tung Tau Estate, fearing their safety may be jeopardised by the new neighbours, fended off 50 police tactical unit officers and workers in a three-hour morning standoff.
The residents coming from two blocks of the public housing estate removed barricades set up by police outside the ground floor site of the hostel at Kwai Tung House.
Some climbed on to the hoarding and hung banners condemning the officials' decision to go ahead with the project.
Protesters also denounced legislators for making ''a wrong decision'' in giving unanimous support to the construction at the welfare panel meeting last Friday.
The 670-square-metre unit has been leased to the Hongkong Association for the Mentally Handicapped for a monthly rent of $17,000 since December. But decorating for a hostel of 40 places has not started due to the opposition.
Residents first blocked workers' access to the site on December 9 last year.
