An off-duty Hong Kong firefighter has been arrested after surrendering to police for an alleged common assault, the South China Morning Post has learned, following a viral video showing him shoving and screaming at a young couple in the Mong Kok shopping centre.
The 48-year-old, who said he works as a firefighter, turned himself in to Mong Kok Police Station on Sunday accompanied by his wife, a source familiar with the matter told SCMP on Monday.
The source said: “The detainee admitted that he behaved in this way because he suspected that the man had intentionally hit him.”
The arrest followed an online backlash after a 24-second video, posted on Instagram on Saturday, showed an altercation between a middle-aged couple and a younger couple at Sim City shopping mall in Mong Kok. In the video, the older couple accuses the younger couple of bumping into them at the entrance to a crowded escalator.
The video begins with the middle-aged woman saying she didn’t pressure the younger couple. The middle-aged man, wearing a green striped shirt and green hat, then shouted at the young couple from a close range, accusing them of bumping into him and his partner.
The young woman screamed in fear as the middle-aged man insisted on his accusation, pointing at the young man and later pushing him.
