When shark attacks in Hong Kong claimed three lives and put the city on edge in the summer of 1995
- In June 1995, a series of shark attacks claimed the lives of three victims in the waters around Sai Kung in Hong Kong’s New Territories
- Several theories were floated as to what had attracted the sharks, including ocean currents, and the ‘smells’ of fish farming in a bay south of the area
On June 2, 1995, readers opened the South China Morning Post to a chilling headline: “Diver killed in shark attack”. Found floating in three metres (nine feet, eight inches) of water off Silverstrand Beach (in Sai Kung in Hong Kong’s New Territories), competitive swimmer turned physical education teacher Tso Kam-sun, 44, had had his leg bitten off up to the waist.
It was two years to the day since another fatal attack by a shark in the area.
The story noted: “Shark experts said the same shark that killed two swimmers in Sai Kung two years ago might have returned. ‘It is too much of a coincidence,’ fisheries officer David Cook said.”
A second fatal attack came 24 hours later, off crowded Sheung Sze Wan Beach, also in Sai Kung. “Witnesses said the water filled with blood […] Herman Lo Cheuk-Yuet, 29, screamed for help and was dragged under water,” the Post reported.
Lo, whose right thigh had been “mauled to the bone”, was rescued by two men on a sampan but died on the way to hospital.