Excavation work at a To Kwa Wan railway construction site has been suspended after more than 50 residents were evacuated because of reports that nearby buildings were shaking.
The residents of four blocks in Maidstone Road were allowed to return two hours later after their homes were declared safe. But work on the MTR's Ma Tau Wai station remained suspended.
Florence Lai Fung-kan, a tenant of 67 Maidstone Road, called the police in the morning when the shaking woke her up. "I thought I was feeling dizzy," she said. "Then I saw my hanging lights … shaking mildly. I thought it was an earthquake."
Fire officers evacuated residents from 65 to 71 Maidstone Road, all five- to six-storey tenements over 40 years old, and police closed a section of the road.
The four blocks are a minute's walk from the planned station on Ma Tau Wai Road, part of the MTR's Sha Tin to Central Link. The Buildings Department is checking whether the rail works caused the vibrations.
Workers were building diaphragm walls - in which mortar is injected into excavations - 30 metres below ground, an MTR spokeswoman said.
Greg Wong Chak-yan, an engineer familiar with rail works, said such walls were used to prevent ground subsidence or soil slippage. The work would "inevitably" cause vibrations, he said.