Safety concerns after 12 students at Hong Kong Baptist University are injured at birthday celebration during which flour dust was thrown around
- Group was at birthday celebration on campus when blaze broke out
- Five students remain in hospital suffering from burn injuries
Safety at Hong Kong youth parties was under the spotlight on Thursday after birthday celebrations turned into a nightmare for a group of Baptist University students who suffered burns when an explosion went off as they threw flour dust around.
Four students remained in hospital on Thursday night, while eight others were treated and discharged earlier.
Investigators from the Fire Services Department were looking into whether the flour dust had ignited during the incident, which prompted comparisons with a tragedy three years ago in Taiwan where 15 people were killed and hundreds injured when a fireball tore through a crowd of revellers while flammable corn starch powder was being sprayed at party goers.
The 12 Hong Kong students suffered burns to the face, neck, hands or feet as a group of about 20 were celebrating a birthday in the student halls of Baptist University’s Kowloon Tong campus shortly before 1am.
They were rushed to different hospitals, where one of them, a 21-year-old woman with serious burns, was in a stable condition on Thursday night, along with three others.