The damaged bank.
Source:
https://scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3049177/when-pla-trained-bomber-tried-and-failed-rob Short Reads
When a PLA-trained bomber tried – and failed – to rob a Hong Kong bank
- The Sham Shui Po branch of Dao Heng Bank was damaged during an attempted robbery in 1985
- A teller lost her eye in the detonation of ‘primitive’ home-made explosive device
The damaged branch of the Dao Heng Bank on Lai Chi Kok Road, in 1985. Photo: SCMP
“Twenty-seven people were hurt yesterday afternoon when a home-made bomb exploded in an attempted bank robbery in Shamshuipo,” reported the South China Morning Post on February 8, 1985. “The blast caused widespread but superficial damage to the ground floor of the Dao Heng Bank branch, knocking its metal doors off their supports and sending debris flying across the junction of Laichikok Road and Nam Cheong Street,” the story continued.
The suspect, “carrying a bulky package wrapped in newspaper” approached a bank teller and “declared a robbery”, the Post reported the following day. “He was waving two electric cord ends from the bomb in his hands.” Police believed that the device was “so primitive” that it blew up “unintentionally” when the man connected the wires.
“The suspect, who was seriously injured, was being detained [...] in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s custodial ward in a fair condition. He has been in a coma most of the time.”
On February 9, the Post reported that the bank teller had “received serious head, eye and face injuries in the blast”.
“Her family was told after the operation that her right eye was so damaged that it would have to be removed for fear that the brain and the other eye would be affected.”
The suspect was named in a February 12 Post article as Ng Sze-yee, who “was charged in his absence at North Kowloon Court yesterday with attempted robbery of the Dao Heng Bank branch at 257 Laichikok Road”.
Three additional charges were made against Ng when he appeared in court on April 6: causing an explosion; possessing an explosive substance, namely nitrocellulose; and exploding an explosive substance causing grievous bodily harm. He admitted to robbery and possessing explosives but pleaded not guilty to the other two charges.
Testifying in his own defence in August, Ng told the court that “he was trained in bomb-making when he was a member of the People’s Liberation Army in China”.
“A construction site worker was sent to prison for 16 years yesterday, his 45th birthday,” reported the Post on August 9. It took the jury just 45 minutes to reach a unanimous verdict of guilty.