Man who ‘cut sleeping woman’s hair’ on Hong Kong bus arrested for assault
- Witness says 65-year-old had been annoyed by the long hair dangling in front of him, touching his knees
- Victim ‘burst into tears’ when she woke up
An elderly man calling himself a barber was arrested on Sunday after allegedly cutting the hair of a sleeping woman sat in front of him on a bus.
A witness said the man, 65, had been annoyed by the long, dangling hair and taken matters into his own hands.
The victim, who said she was an engineer, was taking the Citybus route 107 bus from Kowloon Bay to Wah Kwai Estate in Aberdeen when she fell asleep in a top-deck seat at about 9am on Sunday.
A witness told media that a man sitting behind the woman appeared to be agitated by her ponytail, which hung down the back of the seat and reached his knees.
“He suddenly pulled a pair of scissors from a bag and cut off a strand,” said the witness, adding that the man did not seem to be drunk.
Passengers who saw what had happened stopped the man and woke the woman, who burst into tears when she found out what was going on.
“She was freaked out and crying,” the witness said. The bus driver called police.
When the bus reached Causeway Bay, the man tried to disembark, but other passengers stopped him.
The driver pulled up at a stop on Gloucester Road near Cannon Street, where officers arrested the man on suspicion of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
A Citybus spokesman said there were about 100 people on the bus at the time of the incident. They were transferred to another vehicle while police officers were working on the first bus.
Asked why he carried scissors with him, the man told officers he was a hair stylist.
