Nine people have been arrested and charged with terrorism in Hong Kong for trying to make homemade bombs.
Police said Tuesday (July 6) that they arrested five males and four females Monday who called themselves Reliant Valiant and were between the ages of 15 and 39. Six of the group’s members are high school students. Steve Li Kwai-Wah, senior superintendent of the Hong Kong Police Department’s new National Security Division, said the group tried to build a bomb in a makeshift laboratory in a hotel using a highly explosive chemical called triacetone triperoxide (TATP).
The group was planning to deploy the bombs in Hong Kong’s cross-harbour tunnels, railroads, courtrooms and garbage bins, Li Gui-Wah said. He said police also seized about $11,000 in cash and froze up to $80,000 in bank accounts authorities believe are linked to suspected terrorist activities.
Authorities said they also seized various other items, including operating manuals and plans to leave the city.
The arrests come as Hong Kong is coming further under the control of mainland China. Beijing imposed tough national security laws on the semi-autonomous city last year in response to massive and often violent anti-government protests in 2019.
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