The Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Cheuk Wing-hing, together with the Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, Miss Alice Mak; the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun; Police Regional Commander of New Territories North Regional Headquarters, Ms Lam Man-han; and Officer in charge of the Casualty Enquiry Unit, Chief Superintendent, Ms Tsang Shuk-yin, met the media today (November 29) regarding the follow-up work on the No. 5 alarm fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po. Following are the remarks by Miss Mak and Ms Tsang at the media session:

Reporter: Firstly, I just want to clarify on the casualty figures. Can the Government provide a little bit more clarity on the casualty figures, and also whether the new missing persons cases that you mentioned earlier add to the overall tally, just some clarity on that. And the second thing is, could you also talk about the difficulties in identifying the bodies so far, what are the major issues that are facing the identification of bodies, and how long will this process take according to your estimation. Lastly, we would like to ask about the subsidy. Has Government witnessed any cases of the subsidy given to the residents being abused? Could Miss Mak clarify exactly does the subsidy only apply to home owners or does it apply to home owners who live here, or does it apply to tenants, just have a more specific clarity on that. Lastly, if there is a case of abuse, what will the Government do? Will they prosecute the home owners, for example who took the subsidy from the tenants. What is the situation then?

Officer in charge of Casualty Enquiry Unit: Regarding the number of casualties, as of 3pm today, we got 128 deceased persons confirmed. We expect that when our DVIU (Disaster Victims Identification Unit) officers enter other buildings, the number of deaths may be on the rise. 

     Regarding the missing person reports, as I have reported earlier, we have tried our best to call back some of the informants and also the relatives. And when we called them back, they actually have been in contact with their missing relatives or friends already. But for some other cases, the informants only provided very limited or insufficient information. For example, they could only provide the nicknames (of their friends), or they just guessed their friends might have been living there. So some of the information is really insufficient for us to proceed. But we are still reconnecting with these informants and trying to get more information.

Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs: The HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) Government understands the feelings of those residents concerned. They will be feeling helpless and unsecured. They need timely support and that is why we provide the $10,000 cash subsidy. We hope that with this cash subsidy, the households living in Wang Fuk Court can get some timely assistance. This subsidy is for those affected residents, households, living in the Court during the mega fire. No matter the tenants or the owners, who are living in the Court during this incident, are eligible for this cash subsidy. So far, we have not received any formal report about any abuse cases. If there are any cases, we will definitely look into the cases. What we want to do is to provide timely and flexible subsidies and assistance to those in need. I also urge all those residents living in Wang Fuk Court to approach us as soon as possible to get assistance and help from us. Thank you.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the remarks.)

Ends/Saturday, November 29, 2025
Issued at HKT 21:34

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