Screaming commuters fled as fire spread, court is told
A passenger caught up in an arson attack on an MTR train told the Court of First Instance yesterday he saw a man use a lighter to ignite a bottle wrapped in a towel.
Kwai Sze-kit, a former government administrative officer and a passenger on the Admiralty-bound train, said he immediately shouted at the man, who was standing in a corner of the front carriage, not to light a fire.
The man, whom Mr Kwai later identified as Yim Kam-chung in a police identity parade, then dropped the burning bottle on the floor, the court heard.
Mr Kwai, who was an assistant secretary in the Economic Development and Labour Bureau at the time, said he tried to extinguish the bottle by stepping on it, to no avail.
'All of a sudden, the fire began to spread and the smoke thickened,' he told the court. Passengers, including Mr Kwai, scrambled to other carriages. He said the scene was utterly chaotic, with people screaming and crying.