Police received reports between October 6 and 8 about more than 30 threatening letters containing white powder. On October 6, a catering group employee and a security guard reported that its Tsim Sha Tsui branch and office had each received a letter. Further reports came from residents, shop employees and a restaurant partner near the group’s Tseung Kwan O branch.
The letters contained a sheet bearing a skull and the word “poisonous”. The Explosives Ordnance Disposal Bureau tested the powder and found it was flour, with no chemical, biological or radioactive material and no explosive danger, police said.
Police linked the letters to a dispute over more than HK$1 million in renovation fees between the catering group and a renovation company in Kwun Tong. They suspected the company’s principals had planned the letters as an unlawful way to collect the debt.
On October 9, police arrested two male principals of the renovation company and a female employee at its office on suspicion of criminal intimidation. All three were released on bail pending further investigation; the letters are to undergo further forensic examination.