This photo taken from the official Facebook page of Hong Kong Police Force shows a stone house near Leaping Dragon Walk hiking trail in Siu Sai Wan, where 800 cartridge cases, 200 bullets, gunpowder and chemicals were found in a police operation on March 26, 2020.
HONG KONG - Hong Kong police said a large cache of homemade ammunition and chemicals believed to be linked to a spate of violent anti-government protests was seized in an operation on Thursday.
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Four men aged 20 to 25 were arrested after police busted an “arm factory” covered in woods on a remote hiking trail. The operation lasted till the early hours of Friday.
Police said 800 cartridge cases, 200 bullets, gunpowder and chemicals were found in an abandoned stone house near Leaping Dragon Walk hiking trail in Siu Sai Wan
Police were tipped off at 6 pm on Thursday that led them to an abandoned stone house near the Leaping Dragon Walk hiking trail in Siu Sai Wan, where 800 cartridge cases, 200 bullets, gunpowder and chemicals were found.
The chemicals seized included concentrated acid, ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate, which officers said are common ingredients of homemade explosives, widely used in terrorist attacks.
Senior Superintendent Steve Li Kwai-wah of the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau said the dangerous materials were intended to be used in violent protests. Hong Kong has recently seen several bomb plots.
Three suspects, two claiming to be students and one said he was jobless, were apprehended on Thursday night, while the other, a 25-year-old man, was later arrested in a flat in nearby Chai Wan.
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They were arrested for carrying arms and ammunition without license, an offense punishable by a maximum of 14 years’ imprisonment.
Li said the force is tracing the source of raw materials and potential users of the finish products. More arrests are expected.
