Hong Kong police use drone to find elderly man trapped on hillside without food or water since Sunday
- Lau Choi-hing, 73, was found by police who studied surveillance camera footage and Octopus card records to narrow down search area
- Initial investigation shows man tripped on hilltop and fell down slope off Wan Po Road in Tseung Kwan O
Hong Kong police deployed a drone equipped with a thermal detector in the early hours of Thursday to locate an elderly man who had been trapped on a hillside without food and water since he went missing on Sunday.
Lau Choi-hing, 73, was very weak but conscious when he was discovered lying in thick bushes on a hillside off Wan Po Road in the Tseung Kwan O area of Pak Shing Kok at around 2am, a source familiar with the case said.
Police said paramedics were immediately called in and Lau was taken to Tseung Kwan O Hospital for an examination.
The source said an initial investigation showed the man had tripped on a hilltop and fallen down a slope.
Officers from police’s Kowloon East regional missing person unit were assigned to find Lau when his disappearance was reported on Monday.
According to the force, Lau was last seen at about 9am on Sunday when he left his home at Yau Lai Estate in Lam Tin.
Police established contact with him on Monday before his mobile phone battery died.
During the conversation, Lau told police he was trapped on a hillside but could not provide the exact location.
“Police studied surveillance camera footage and checked records of his Octopus card that helped officers narrow down the search area,” the source said.
Octopus cards are widely used by millions of people every day to travel and shop in the city.
After confirming Lau’s last known location as Pung Loi Road near the junction of Wan Po Road in Tseung Kwan O, officers went to a nearby hilltop soon after midnight and deployed the drone, the source said.
Firefighters and paramedics were called in when Lau was found on the 50-metre-high (164-foot-high) hillside at about 2am.
Police said no suspicious circumstances were linked to the incident.
