Fourteen police officers were injured yesterday when a squatter barricaded himself in his Tsuen Wan hut and sprayed gas at them. The two-hour stand-off came after police had been pelted with missiles when they tried to clear about 50 squatters from a government-owned site near the former Nan Fung textile factory in On Yuk Road, Chai Wan Kok Tsuen, at about 7am. Police, Housing Department officials and the Democratic Party's Albert Chan Wai-yip thought they had negotiated everyone out of a group of makeshift huts soon after the 10.15am deadline for removal. However, when police swept the area they discovered 39-year-old Lam Hung hiding in a small unit armed with a canister of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Tsuen Wan Divisional Commander Mike Parker said Lam, who was arrested semi-conscious after the struggle, made repeated threats to ignite the gas. 'We sent officers in several times to try to get him out, but he just turned the gas on full vent, choking the men. How he managed to breath in there is anyone's guess,' said Mr Parker. 'Then we sent in a police dog but it was affected by the gas as well. I couldn't believe that one man would pose so much of a problem. 'Our aim was to get him out, without injury to anyone, including himself.' As fire engines sprayed water on to the hut in case Lam ignited the gas, police knocked holes in the roof to distract him. Officers burst in through the front and back to arrest him. Lam was in a stable condition in Yan Chai Hospital last night. Fourteen officers were sent to hospital after inhaling LPG, along with two others who were injured by missiles in the earlier disturbance. Five remained in hospital last night and all were stable.
