Arrests over Hong Kong apartment towers blaze

HONG Kong's anti-corruption agency says it has arrested eight people connected to the renovation of the high-rise apartments that were engulfed in a massive fire that left 128 people dead.

- DAVID RISING & CHAN HO-HIM

An aerial view of the burnt buildings after a deadly fire in Hong Kong

(Ng Han Guan)

Seven men and one woman, aged between 40 and 63, including scaffolding subcontractors, directors of an engineering consultancy and project managers supervising the renovation, were detained, the Independent Commission Against Corruption said in a statement.

The agency also searched their offices yesterday and seized documents and bank records. The investigation into possible corruption in the renovation project was launched on Thursday after the fire broke out.

The arrests were announced after firefighters found dozens more bodies yesterday, taking the death toll to 128, with many still unaccounted for.

First responders found that some fire alarms in the complex, which housed many older people, did not sound when tested, said Andy Yeung, the director of Hong Kong Fire Services, though he did not say how many were not working.