When a time bomb exploded, injuring 14 people, in a Hong Kong shopping centre during lunchtime
- Hong Kong police started a territory-wide manhunt after a time bomb exploded in a busy shopping centre in 1987, the third bombing in a month
- In 1989, the body of a man who had recently been arrested for the bombing and released on bail was found floating in the city’s Victoria Harbour
“Police were early today still conducting a territory-wide search for the person responsible for planting a time-bomb which exploded yesterday among lunchtime shoppers in Taikoo Shing Plaza, injuring 14 people,” reported the South China Morning Post on July 9, 1987.
“Four children and seven women – most of them elderly – were among those rushed to hospital after the gunpowder-based device detonated in a ball of flame in Cityplaza.
“Some of the victims were horrifically burnt and one seven-year-old boy, Lai Kin-chung, was described as being in a fair condition […] early today. Police said they had no idea who might be responsible for the attack, the third bombing in Hongkong in a month. But in an apparently unrelated incident last night, another package containing explosives and marked with pro-Taiwanese slogans, was found near the Mobil oil depot on Tsing Yi Island.
“Bomb disposal experts said they believed the object was a balloon-borne container for Nationalist propaganda that had crashed en route to China. Similar packages, which carry explosives designed to puncture the balloons over the mainland, had been found in the area.”
Two years later, on March 24, 1989, the Post reported, “A body believed to be that of a teacher suspected in the Taikoo Shing bombing was found floating in the harbour near North Point fire station yesterday.