Bystanders, shop owner who took on knifeman at Hong Kong fast-food shop earn praise from witnesses
- Five people, including suspect, were hurt at a Fairwood restaurant in Sha Tin’s Shui Chuen O Plaza on Wednesday
- 43-year-old male attacker, armed 30cm kitchen knife, has record of mental illness, source says
Passers-by and a shop owner who grabbed what they could to fight off a man armed with a knife in a Hong Kong fast-food shop have been hailed as heroes.
Lui King-hoi, the owner of 138 Shoes, next to the fast-food shop run by the Fairwood chain, said on Thursday he acted on instinct.
“I did not think about it much,” he told the Post. “All I wanted to do was to help and stop the attacker from hurting other people.”
Lui, 37, along with several others, helped to subdue a 43-year-old man alleged to have wounded the Fairwood’s woman cashier with a 30cm (12 inch) knife.
He said he heard screams from the restaurant and spotted the suspect brandishing a knife
Lui added he ran out of the shop to join others to tackle the man with whatever improvised weapons they could find.
“There was a middle-aged man with a trolley, someone else was holding a ladder, another person and I were holding the aluminium wet floor sign, a Fairwood employee was holding a metal hook,” Lui said.
He added he and others forced the man towards a set of glass doors at one end of the shopping centre, where he was arrested by police.
A total of five people suffered injuries, including Fairwood’s woman cashier, who suffered knife wounds to her left arm and nose.
Fairwood confirmed three staff members at the branch in Shui Chuen O Plaza, Sha Tin, had been injured and that the firm would provide help to the employees and their families.
A male customer, 44, also required hospital treatment for cuts to his neck inflicted during the scuffle.
A source familiar with the case said the man, who lives on the Shui Chuen O Estate and who was also taken to hospital, had a history of mental illness.
But the Social Welfare Department on Thursday said that he was not one of its cases.
Jessie Chan, a 53-year-old employee of Best Wife Houseware, said she and colleagues hid as the suspect was detained near the store.
“My colleague heard someone scream there was a stabbing, so we quickly took in our merchandise and closed our doors,” Chan added.
“We were scared that he would enter our store … the passers-by and the suspect only came near our store after we took everything in and closed the doors.”
Chan praised the bravery of the members of the public involved in fighting off the attacker and said one them was a regular customer in her shop.
“They were very united,” she added. “I am sure they did not want a repeat of what happened in Diamond Hill.”
Two women were stabbed to death in an apparently random knife attack at the Plaza Hollywood shopping centre in Diamond Hill last June.
A man was later charged with the double murder.
Thomas Choi, the owner of Electrical Home Company, an electronics store in the Shui Chuen O Plaza, also praised the actions of Lui and the other passers-by.
“It is a good thing that they were so brave,” he added.
The 38-year-old said he armed himself with a piece of metal to defend himself if the suspect entered his store.
But he said he did not go outside to intervene as Lui told him that he had already called police.
Fairwood said later the injured staff were taken to hospital for treatment and two were discharged after outpatient treatment.
A Hospital Authority spokesman added a woman, 50, had been admitted to Prince of Wales Hospital and was in a “stable” condition.
Fairwood said it also planned to “further strengthen the crisis management training of employees and emphasise employee personal safety”.
