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Clifford Lo

Teenager's experiment with paper caps goes horribly wrong
A teenager lost the fingers of his left hand and forced the evacuation of about 300 residents of an apartment building after setting off an explosion while making a home-made grenade.
The 17-year-old also injured his right hand in the incident, which happened when a plastic bottle containing the powder from hundreds of paper caps detonated.
Initial investigations showed that the teenager, who is unemployed, was in his bedroom alone in the ninth-floor flat of Yiu Hong House,  on the Tin Yiu Estate in  Tin Shui Wai,  when the blast happened at 10.23pm on Tuesday.
Inside his bedroom, officers seized hundreds of paper caps, a plastic toy grenade and several toy guns.
'Suffering severe injuries to his hands in the explosion, the boy walked out of the bedroom and sought help from his father in the living room,' a police source said.
His father, a tour coach driver,  alerted  neighbours who called  the police.
One neighbour said: 'There was a loud bang.  It was just like a gas explosion.'
After the blast, police evacuated about 300 residents from the building. Officers from the bomb disposal squad were also called in.
The injured youth was taken to Tuen Mun Hospital,  where his condition had improved from critical to serious after surgery. No further details were given.
A police spokesman said last night that the boy had been arrested for possession of explosives.    He said paper caps came under the  Dangerous Goods Ordinance, which stated no unlicensed person  was allowed to manufacture, store, convey or use any dangerous goods.
Convicted offenders could receive a maximum jail term of six months and be fined HK$25,000.
Another police source said investigations indicated the victim had been interested in explosives since he was young and  went online to learn how to make a device.
Police seized his computer for inspection.
'He removed explosive from paper caps and stored it in a plastic bottle,' the source said. 'We believe he tried to hollow out the centre of a plastic toy grenade and fill it with gunpowder.'
The source believed that the youth was holding the plastic bottle containing explosive and sitting in front of a table when the bottle went off. 'We are still investigating the cause of the explosion,' the source said.
The table's glass surface was broken and the damaged plastic bottle was also found.
'Up to this stage, investigations show that the boy attempted to make a home-made device for fun,' the source said.
A police spokeswoman said an investigation was still being conducted.
The teenager lives with his father and two older sisters. The two sisters were not at home at the time.



Youth blows off his fingers while making grenade