Pair charged after explosive boar trap blows off animal lover’s fingers
Two men charged after passers-by injured when they found explosive bait in park
Two men allegedly left a home-made bomb wrapped in roast duck inside Lion Rock Country Park over the weekend with the intent to kill wild pigs for food, a court heard yesterday.
Police found boar meat at the homes of the men, Ho Kwok-fai, 53, and Chan San, 55, after their arrests, Kowloon City Court heard.
The investigation suggested that Ho had eyed wild pigs for consumption and planned to kill them with the booby trap, a prosecutor said, adding that "the police also seized five traps in Chan's home and slices of boar meat from both defendants' refrigerators."
Ho, a construction worker, and Chan, who was reportedly jobless, did not enter pleas to one count each of control of an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property.
Magistrate Peter Law Tak-chuen adjourned the case to December 5 so that the police could arrange witnesses to attend an identity parade.
Law rejected the pair's bail application and retained them in police custody.
The bait was a piece of roast duck packaged with an explosive substance and wrapped in red nylon string, the court heard.
Ho and Chan left the item on a slope near the Wilson Trail above Cheung Sha Wan on Saturday, the prosecution alleged.
The witnesses were understood to be animal lovers who visited the country park to feed stray dogs and happened to see people in the act of leaving a bag on the slope.
One of them suffered head and hand injuries when he tried to cut off the piece of duck meat, triggering the blast.
The middle and fourth fingers on his left hand were seriously injured and required surgery. The non-profit-making Veterinary Service Society said yesterday that the man's fingers had been reattached and he was recovering well.
Doctors said he should eventually make a full recovery, according to the society.
