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Fire in Hong Kong public flat kills 78-year-old man, injures 3

Police say flames were first spotted at around 5am, adding about 60 residents were evacuated from building

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A fire broke out at a flat in Lai King Estate at around 5am on Monday. Photo: Jelly Tse

A 78-year-old Hong Kong man has died and three other people have been injured after a fire broke out in a public flat in Kwai Tsing district.

Police said flames were first spotted in the flat at Lai King Estate’s Wo King House at around 5am on Monday.

Wong Cheuk-kei, an assistant divisional officer of the Fire Services Department, said the elderly man was found dead on his bed by firefighters and had lived alone in the third-floor flat.

Wong said the flat was “slightly cluttered”, but noted that investigations into the cause of the fire were still under way.

Fourteen fire trucks, six ambulances and 81 officers were deployed to the scene, with about 60 residents forced to evacuate. The blaze was put out within 15 minutes.

Wong said that firefighters had kept dousing the flats on the third floor with water to prevent the fire from reigniting, as temperatures remained high.

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