Rust found on lift cables that snapped in North Point, injuring seven
Services suspended on three more lifts, all maintained by the same company, as government engineers race to finish safety inspections
Rust was found on all four cables of a lift that plummeted to the ground on Saturday night, injuring seven people.
It had been maintained by Shineford Engineering and government engineers are scrambling to conduct safety checks on 248 other lifts the firm serviced. So far they have found rust on three other lifts to the extent that services had to be suspended.
The lift in a commercial building at 480 King's Road, North Point, fell to the ground when all four cables snapped after it had passed the first floor going up.
The seven injured - aged 30 to 82 - were still in hospital last night. One of them, an 82-year-old man, was in critical condition. Another was in serious condition and five were stable.
Alfred Sit Wing-hang, deputy director of regulatory services at the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, said the department had inspected 38 of the 248 lifts that are maintained by Shineford. The cables of three were about 10 per cent narrower because they had rusted.
"They are not rusted to an extent that they would break, but they need to be replaced," he said. One was in the building where the accident occurred. The other two were in Kwun Tong.
The department has sent 20 staff in four to five teams to inspect the lifts, and Sit hoped the checks would be completed in one or two days.