Death toll in Hong Kong fire rises to 161 after new DNA match
‘DNA tests are still being carried out, and we do not rule out the possibility that the DNA of other deceased people may be identified,’ police commissioner says
One more person has been confirmed dead in Hong Kong’s Tai Po fire, bringing the death toll to 161, the police chief has said, citing results of further forensic analysis.
“Further forensic tests found the DNA of another person in one of the bodies, identified as belonging to a couple. This means the death toll has increased to 161,” Commissioner of Police Joe Chow Yat-ming said on Saturday after a passing-out parade at the Hong Kong Police College.
“DNA tests are being carried out. We do not rule out the possibility that the DNA of other deceased people may be identified, which could raise the death toll.”
Chow also said that the six missing cases earlier reported had all been resolved, with five of the people among those killed in the fire and the other one found to have died in 2023.
Police reached out to about 100 households of Wang Fuk Court earlier to give samples of their DNA to identify victims, where the worst inferno in more than seven decades broke out on November 26.
All eight residential buildings at Wang Fuk Court – a government-subsidised Home Ownership Scheme estate built in the 1980s – had been covered in bamboo scaffolding and mesh nets during renovations, while polystyrene foam boards were used to cover windows.