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PHOTOS: Hong Kong Housing Estate Fire Kills At Least 13

Published

2 weeks ago

November 26, 2025

A huge fire engulfed a Hong Kong residential estate and killed at least 13 people on Wednesday, with firefighters saying they were blocked from reaching some of the people seeking help.

The fire, which started in the afternoon and was still burning late into the night, was the deadliest in decades in Hong Kong, which has some of the world’s most densely populated and tallest apartment blocks.

Massive flames first took hold on bamboo scaffolding on several apartment blocks of Wang Fuk Court, which contains nearly 2,000 flats in eight towers and was reportedly undergoing estate-wide maintenance.

Firefighters spray water on flames as a major fire engulfs several apartment blocks at the Wang Fuk Court residential estate in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on November 26, 2025. A huge fire ripped through several high-rise blocks in a Hong Kong residential estate on November 26, killing at least 13 people, with media reporting that some residents were trapped inside. (Photo by AFP)

An AFP reporter heard loud cracking sounds, possibly from the burning bamboo, and saw thick plumes of smoke billowing from the buildings as flames and ash reached high into the sky.

A 65-year-old resident surnamed Yuen said he had lived in the estate for more than four decades and that many of his neighbours were elderly and might not be mobile.

“The windows were closed because of the maintenance, (some people) didn’t know there was a fire and had to be told to evacuate via phone calls by neighbours,” Yuen told AFP.

“I’m devastated, there is loss of property and loss of life, and even a firefighter has died.”

Nine people died at the scene and four more, including a 37-year-old firefighter, were certified dead at hospital, the government said late on Wednesday.

A police officer at a temporary shelter told AFP it was unclear how many people were unaccounted for because residents were still trickling in late into the night to report missing family members.

Thick smoke and flames rise as a major fire engulfs several apartment blocks at the Wang Fuk Court residential estate in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on November 26, 2025. At least four people were killed when a fire engulfed several high-rise blocks in a Hong Kong residential estate on November 26, the government said, with media reporting that some residents were trapped inside. (Photo by AFP)

Sections of charred scaffolding fell from the burning blocks and flames could be seen inside apartments, sometimes belching out through windows into the night sky, casting an eerie orange glow on surrounding buildings.

“The temperature at the scene is very high and there are some floors where we have been unable to reach people who requested help, but we will keep trying,” said Derek Armstrong Chan, the deputy director of fire service operations.

He said the fire likely spread from one building to another due to the wind and drifting debris, although he added authorities are investigating the cause of the blaze.

Hong Kong’s hospital authority said 23 people were injured, with six in critical condition and 11 listed as serious.

Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed condolences to the victims, including “the firefighter who died in the line of duty”, according to state media.

A bystander looks on near an ambulance as a major fire engulfs several apartment blocks at the Wang Fuk Court residential estate (background) in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on November 26, 2025. At least four people were killed when a fire engulfed several high-rise blocks in a Hong Kong residential estate on November 26, the government said, with media reporting that some residents were trapped inside. (Photo by AFP)

“He offered sympathies to the families of the victims and those affected by the disaster, and called for making every effort to extinguish the fire and minimise casualties and losses,” state broadcaster CCTV said.

City leader John Lee said he was “deeply saddened” and that all government departments were assisting residents affected by the fire.

‘Dare not leave’
A Tai Po resident surnamed So, 57, earlier told AFP near the scene that the fire was “heartbreaking”.

“There’s nothing that can be done about the property. We can only hope that everyone, no matter old or young, can return safely,” So said.

An apartment owner in his 40s who did not want to give his name told AFP that the government needed to help those made homeless by the blaze.

“The fire is not yet under control and I dare not leave, and I don’t know what I can do,” he said.

Firefighters spray water during a major fire at the Wang Fuk Court residential estate in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on November 26, 2025. At least four people were killed when a fire engulfed several high-rise blocks in a Hong Kong residential estate on November 26, the government said, with media reporting that some residents were trapped inside. (Photo by Peter PARKS / AFP)

Residents were seen being evacuated via large coaches, with local media reporting that adjacent blocks were also being cleared.

Authorities set up a casualty hotline and opened two temporary shelters in nearby community centres.

Sections of a nearby highway were also closed by the firefighting operation.

Deadly fires were once a regular scourge in densely populated Hong Kong, especially in poorer neighbourhoods.

However, safety measures have been ramped up in recent decades and such fires have become much less commonplace.

The Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims expressed “deep concern” over scaffolding-related fires, noting similar incidents in April, May and October.

Four people were hospitalised after a separate fire on the scaffolding of a building in Hong Kong’s central business district last month.

Headline

South Korea, Japan Protest China, Russia Aircraft Incursions

Published

1 day ago

December 10, 2025

Editor

South Korea and Japan reacted furiously on Wednesday after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols around the two countries, with both Seoul and Tokyo scrambling jets.

South Korea said it had protested with representatives of China and Russia, while Japan said it had conveyed its “serious concerns” over national security.

According to Tokyo, two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers on Tuesday flew from the Sea of Japan to rendezvous with two Chinese H-6 bombers in the East China Sea, then conducted a joint flight around the country.

The incident comes as Japan is locked in a dispute with China over comments Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made about Taiwan.

The bombers’ joint flights were “clearly intended as a show of force against our nation, Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi wrote on X Wednesday.

Top government spokesman Minoru Kihara said that Tokyo had “conveyed to both China and Russia our serious concerns over our national security through diplomatic channels”.

Seoul said Tuesday the Russian and Chinese warplanes entered its air defence zone and that a complaint had been lodged with the defence attaches of both countries in the South Korean capital.

“Our military will continue to respond actively to the activities of neighbouring countries’ aircraft within the KADIZ in compliance with international law,” said Lee Kwang-suk, director general of the International Policy Bureau at Seoul’s defence ministry, referring to the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone.

South Korea also said it deployed “fighter jets to take tactical measures in preparation for any contingencies” in response to the Chinese and Russian incursion into the KADIZ.

The planes were spotted before they entered the air defence identification zone, defined as a broader area in which countries police aircraft for security reasons but which does not constitute their airspace.

Japan’s defence ministry also scrambled fighter jets to intercept the warplanes.

Beijing later Tuesday confirmed it had organised drills with Russia’s military according to “annual cooperation plans”.

Moscow also described it as a routine exercise, saying it lasted eight hours and that some foreign fighter jets followed the Russian and Chinese aircraft.

Since 2019, China and Russia have regularly flown military aircraft into South Korea’s air defence zone without prior notice, citing joint exercises.

In November last year, Seoul scrambled jets as five Chinese and six Russian military planes flew through its air defence zone.

Similar incidents occurred in June and December 2023, and in May and November 2022.

Meanwhile, Tokyo said Monday it had scrambled jets in response to repeated takeoff and landing exercises involving fighter jets and military helicopters from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier as it cruised in international waters near Japan.

It also summoned Beijing’s ambassador after military aircraft from the Liaoning locked radar onto Japanese jets, the latest incident in the row ignited by Takaichi’s comments backing Taiwan.

Takaichi suggested last month that Japan would intervene militarily in any Chinese attack on the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as its own and has not ruled out seizing by force.

AFP

Headline

Thousands Reported To Have Fled DR Congo Fighting As M23 Closes On Key City

Published

2 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

Fierce fighting rocked the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday as the Rwanda-backed M23 militia rapidly advanced towards the strategic city of Uvira, with tens of thousands of people fleeing over the nearby border into Burundi, sources said.

The armed group and its Rwandan allies were just a few kilometres (miles) north of Uvira, security and military sources told AFP.

The renewed violence undermined a peace agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump that Kinshasa and Kigali signed less than a week ago, on December 4.

Trump had boasted that the Rwanda-DRC conflict was one of eight he has ended since returning to power in America in January.

With the new fighting, more than 30,000 people have fled the area around Uvira for Burundi in the space of a week, a UN source and a Burundian administrative source told AFP.

The Burundian source told AFP on condition of anonymity he had recorded more than 8,000 daily arrivals over the past two days, and 30,000 arrivals in one week. A source in the UN refugee agency confirmed the figure.

The Rwanda-backed M23 offensive comes nearly a year after the group seized control of Goma and Bukavu, the two largest cities in eastern DRC, a strategic region rich in natural resources and plagued by conflict for 30 years.

Local people described a state of growing panic as bombardments struck the hills above Uvira, a city of several hundred thousand residents.

“Three bombs have just exploded in the hills. It’s every man for himself,” said one resident reached by telephone.

“We are all under the beds in Uvira — that’s the reality,” another resident said, while a representative of civil society who would not give their name described fighting on the city’s outskirts.

Fighting was also reported in Runingo, another small locality some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Uvira, as the M23 and the Rwandan army closed in.

Burundi views the prospect of Uvira falling to Rwanda-backed forces as an existential threat, given that it sits across Lake Tanganyika from Burundi’s economic capital Bujumbura.

The city is the main sizeable locality in the area yet to fall to the M23 and its capture would essentially cut off the zone from DRC control.

Burundi deployed about 10,000 soldiers to eastern DRC in October 2023 as part of a military cooperation agreement, and security sources say reinforcements have since taken that presence to around 18,000 men.

The M23 and Rwandan forces launched their Uvira offensive on December 1.

Rich in natural resources, eastern DRC has been choked by successive conflicts for around three decades.

Violence in the region intensified early this year when M23 fighters seized the key eastern city of Goma in January, followed by Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province, a few weeks later.

– Regional risk –

The peace deal meant to quell the fighting was signed last Thursday in Washington by Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, with Trump — who called it a “miracle” deal — also putting his signature to it.

The agreement includes an economic component intended to secure US supplies of critical minerals present in the region, as America seeks to challenge China’s dominance in the sector.

But even on the day of the signing, intense fighting took place in South Kivu, where Uvira is located, which included the bombing of houses and schools.

Witnesses and military sources in Uvira said that Congolese soldiers fleeing the fighting had arrived in the city overnight Monday and shops were looted at dawn.

Several hundred Congolese and Burundian soldiers had already fled to Burundi on Monday, according to military sources, since the M23 fighters embarked on their latest offensive from Kamanyola, some 70 kilometres north of Uvira.
Since the M23’s lightning offensive early this year, the front had largely stabilised over the past nine months.

Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye warned in February there was a danger of the conflict escalating into a broader regional war, a fear echoed by the United Nations.

Headline

‘Santa Claus’ Arrested For Possessing, Distributing Child Sexual Abuse Material

Published

2 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

A 64-year-old man from Hamilton Township has been arrested in the United States after investigators linked him to the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material.

The suspect, identified as Mark Paulino, had been working as a “Santa for hire” at holiday events, a role that placed him in repeated contact with children.

Mercer County officials said the investigation began on 4 December when detectives were alerted to suspicious online activity involving the uploading of child pornography from a residence in Hamilton Township. The probe quickly identified Paulino, a retired elementary school teacher, as the person involved.

Police stated that Paulino had presented himself online as a retired teacher and had recently performed as Santa Claus for photographs and private, corporate, and organisational events. “Because this role involved direct, repeated contact with children, detectives worked around the clock to secure a search warrant,” authorities explained.

The warrant was executed on 5 December, during which police seized multiple items regarded as evidentiary. Paulino was taken into custody without incident and charged with possession and distribution of child sexual abuse materials, as well as endangering the welfare of a child.

Prosecutors have filed a motion to detain him pending trial. The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities have urged members of the public with relevant information to come forward.