Hong Kong orchestra musician charged with explosives and weapons offences
- Orchestra trumpet player amassed ‘arsenal’ of explosives and weapons, court told
- Magistrate hears haul at storage unit included knives, axes and a catapult with more than 40 steel balls
A prosecutor told a court on Monday that a member of one of Hong Kong’s top orchestras charged with possession of explosives and offensive weapons was building an “arsenal”.
Man Hay, 31, a trumpet player with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, was said to have amassed a large amount of weaponry and chemicals used for bomb-making, which were hidden in a storage unit.
“It can be described as an arsenal of weapons,” Ryan Wong Chun-ting, for the prosecution, told Kowloon City Court.
Prosecutors have levelled a single charge of possession of an explosive substance – 300 grams of low explosive – with intent and possession of 10kg of chemicals, a quantity of time-delayed fuse and 30 fireworks.
Among the 10kg of chemicals were potassium nitrate and oxidising agents, which can be used to manufacture bombs, Wong told the court.
Man was also accused of possession of three knives, two axes, a baseball bat, two wooden rods and a catapult with 43 steel balls.
Acting principal magistrate Peony Wong Nga-yan heard that police also found plastic tubes studded with nails at the rented storage unit at Extra Space Hung Hom (HK), in the Heng Ngai Jewellery Centre in Hung Hom, when it was raided last Friday.
