Police talk down man in Hong Kong window ledge stand-off sparked by ‘axe attack on wife’
He was sent to hospital while the woman underwent brain surgery
A man who threatened to jump off the window ledge of his 17th-floor public housing flat was persuaded by officers to step down following a five-hour stand-off on Thursday. The incident occurred after he had allegedly attacked his wife with an axe.
Firefighters had inflated an air cushion in the hope of breaking any fall, and police negotiators had been called in at about 8am to try to talk the 60-year-old down.
Police said the man went back into his flat at 1.30pm and he was sent to Tin Shui Wai Hospital.
The woman, 41, was by noon undergoing brain surgery at Tuen Mun Hospital.
According to a police spokeswoman, the man attacked his wife inside the flat in Ching Hoi House, Tin Ching Estate, off Tin Sau Road, at about 7.45am.
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The man’s daughter called police, telling them “her father attacked her mother”, the spokeswoman added.
“Officers found the injured woman inside the flat and her husband was found outside the flat,” she said. The man was on the ledge, refusing to move, from about 8am.
A police source said it seemed he had used an axe in the attack, which began after a relationship row between the couple. When emergency services arrived on the scene, the wife was sent to hospital.
The man and woman live with their two daughters, aged 11 and 15.
• Anyone feeling emotionally distressed can call the Samaritans Hong Kong on 2896 0000
