A taxi driver was being detained by police overnight after a 16-year-old schoolgirl was attacked with a hammer in Wan Chai yesterday.
The victim was walking along Chai Wan Road near the junction with San Ha Street at 8.55am when she came across a parked taxi and a man standing nearby.
She told police he suddenly attacked her, hitting her over the head with a hammer and trying to force her into the boot. 'She screamed, which alerted a passerby who shouted at the attacker,' a police spokeswoman said. The attacker then pushed her to the ground and fled in the taxi.
She said the girl managed to note the number plate and at about 9.30am police found the taxi parked nearby, outside Hing Tsui Court. After questioning, the 37-year-old driver, surnamed Ho, was arrested.
The victim, a Form Four pupil, suffered injuries to her head and cuts to her arm and was taken to Eastern District Hospital, where she was in a stable condition.
Police later took the handcuffed driver to a flat at Hei Ming House in Yuk Ming Court, Tsueng Kwan O, and left with a box. Then they went to a flat in Man Yat House on the Hing Man Estate, Chai Wan.
