Two men whose images were captured by a surveillance camera are being sought by police investigating the suspected arson attack in a popular Mong Kok market street on Wednesday that killed nine people.
Their blurred photographs were issued by police last night as five of the 34 people injured in the Fa Yuen Street blaze remained in critical condition in hospital. Eleven are in stable condition.
A senior police officer said a reward of HK$300,000 or more might be offered to people providing information about the early-morning fire that started in market stalls and spread to nearby flats.
The men were filmed walking separately in the space of about five minutes at the junction of Fa Yuen Street and Bute Street about the time the fire broke out. 'The two men may provide important information to us so we want to interview them,' said Superintendent Brian Lowcock of Kowloon West regional crime unit in appealing for help. 'At this stage, we are not treating them as suspects.'
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said if it was arson, the person responsible would be caught. 'We must take swift action to catch the perpetrator,' he said. He also promised to conduct a thorough investigation into the cause of death of the nine victims in the city's deadliest fire for 15 years.
Police have identified eight of the dead - two men and six women.
Many residents were trapped as two lines of hawker booths on each side of Fa Yuen Street caught fire at the same time, at about 4.40am on Wednesday, cutting off exits and creating billowing dense smoke that poured up staircases into six blocks of flats. More than 300 firefighters took about eight hours to douse the flames and rescue trapped residents.