The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority: Regarding the "Enhanced Laboratory Surveillance Programme", the Hospital Authority (HA) provides the following supplementary information today (March 3):… read more
Hong Kong Customs seized about 1 170 grams of suspected cocaine with an estimated market value of about $1.3 million from a male passenger arriving at Hong Kong International Airport on March 1.
A 24-year-old male passenger arrived in Hong Kong from Sao Paulo, Brazil via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on that day. He was found to be suspicious upon customs clearance and was suspected to have dangerous drugs concealed inside his body cavities. He was escorted to hospital for examination and later discharged the batch of suspected cocaine. He was then arrested.
The arrested man has been charged with one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug. The case will be brought up at Kwun Tong Magistrates’ Courts tomorrow (March 4).
Customs will continue to apply a risk assessment strategy to select outbound, inbound and transit passengers for clearance to intercept different kinds of drug trafficking activities.
Under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, trafficking in a dangerous drug is a serious offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $5 million and life imprisonment.
Members of the public may report any suspected drug trafficking activities to Customs’ 24-hour hotline 2545 6182 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk).
The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) has completed an independent investigation into the train derailment incident at Hung Hom Station on the MTR East Rail Line on September 17, 2019, and released the technical investigation report today (March 3).
The investigation revealed that the cause of the derailment was track gauge widening. The track gauge widening was due to the deteriorated condition of the sleepers, which supported and fixed the rails in the incident location. The deterioration had reduced the strength of the sleepers such that they were unable to effectively retain the rails in the correct position. The track gauge under the dynamic loading of trains would be even wider, and this excessive gauge widening caused the train to derail at the time of the incident.
The investigation confirmed that the incident did not involve a train equipment failure, a signalling system failure, external objects or a cyber-attack. The broken rails and rail cracks at the incident location were caused by the derailed train wheels hitting the rails, but were not the cause of the incident.
The EMSD has reviewed the investigation report submitted by the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL) on February 14 and accepted its investigation findings on the cause of incident and recommendations.
After the incident, the MTRCL has been carrying out maintenance of tracks in strict accordance with established maintenance procedures. The EMSD has also requested the MTRCL to install monitoring devices to facilitate the monitoring of rail conditions. The EMSD has instructed and confirmed that the MTRCL has reviewed the condition of sleepers along the entire East Rail Line and has completed replacement of sleepers in dissatisfactory condition. The MTRCL has also proposed improvement measures for enhancing track maintenance to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents.
The Government is very concerned about the incident. In the interest of safety, the Secretary for Transport and Housing has, pursuant to section 28 of the Mass Transit Railway Ordinance (Cap. 556), given a notice in writing to the MTRCL, requesting the MTRCL to take relevant steps, including the installation of a real-time monitoring system on passenger trains to enhance track monitoring, and the submission of report on the implementation of measures to improve the management of track maintenance, with a view to preventing a recurrence of similar incidents. The EMSD will continue to closely monitor the effectiveness of the MTRCL in implementing the relevant measures in order to ensure railway safety.
The investigation report has been uploaded on the EMSD’s website (www.emsd.gov.hk/filemanager/en/content_1394/ERL_Derailment_Incident_Report_(Eng).pdf). read more
The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority: The spokesperson for Kowloon West Cluster (KWC) made the following announcement today (March 3): &nbs… read more
The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority: As at noon today (March 3), public hospitals had reported to the Department of Health the admission of 47 patients (21 male and … read more