The story of the Prince Edward Station "Murders" upsets many people in Hong Kong to this day. But what really happened on August 31, 2019? Consider the details below and make up your own mind.
THE MOST REGULARLY shared version of what happened at Prince Edward MTR Station in Kowloon, late on the night of August 31, 2019, is short.
A brutal squad of out-of-control police officers attacked innocent members of the public on a pair of stationary trains, injuring many of them seriously and killing six people.
They ordered all journalists out of the station to cover up their crime, and prevented ambulance staff from reaching the dying.
TRAIN OF DEATH
The corpses were whisked away in a special MTR “train of death” and have been mourned with funeral flowers on the last day of each month ever since.
In the UK, right wing politician David Alton later co-wrote a letter to the Queen, which said, in part: “There are numerous unexplained deaths with credible allegations of police responsibility.”
That version is a horrific story by any standards.
In that version of the story, the protesters make no appearance at all.
But the fact is, they were there. The second version of the story is provided below, and is longer, with more detail. Read the facts and then make up your own mind.
CREATING MAYHEM
Hong Kong's peaceful protesters are some of the best people I know.
They should never be confused with the violent anti-China radicals, who were hurting people and vandalizing property across the city on August 31. Radicalized youths lit fires, sprayed anti-China graffiti on walls, and smashed or burned businesses perceived to have a connection with mainland China.
I was with a group of radicals on Hong Kong Island (as a reporter, not a participant), while other contacts and colleagues were with groups elsewhere. ALL my peaceful protester friends were wise enough to stay well away.
FIREBOMBS IN TST
At about 10:05 pm, radical protesters with petrol bombs retreated north from Tsim Sha Tsui along Nathan Road to Mong Kok, where they moved onto the middle of the main road to create a blockage.
One group broke away and entered Mong Kong MTR station with the aim of destroying station facilities. They used a hammer and an iron pole, located the control room and smashed the main glass panel.
MTR staff called the police, but the protesters ran for the shadows. Police arrived minutes later, but the trouble appeared to have evaporated.
By 10.30 pm, the station was quiet again, with staff emerging to sweep up the debris.
WHERE HAD THEY GONE?
What rail staff didn’t know is that some or all of the members of the violent group hadn’t left—they had simply moved down the escalators to the platforms to slip onto trains.
For passengers already on the trains, the radical protesters were easy to spot: exhilarated young people dressed in black with masks and helmets, plus backpacks filled with clinking objects.
But there was soon simmering tension between the members of the public and the protesters.
At 10:42 pm, passengers got into a verbal altercation with protesters on one particular train in the tunnel approaching Prince Edward Station.
A young male protester slapped the face of a middle-aged man who had scolded him. This incident was caught on camera by someone else in the carriage.
A few other passengers in the train remonstrated with the radical protesters, who responded angrily. This quickly devolved into a physical brawl in that carriage.
Other passengers, horrified by the violence, could be seen quickly leaving the train as soon as it had arrived at platform number three at Prince Edward Station.
Normally, train stops are very short—but the driver found himself unable to close the doors.
Witnesses saw that some protesters had left the carriage but were holding the doors open while continuing the fight they had had with the passengers.
Several protesters re-entered the carriage to hit passengers with umbrellas. They also used iron poles and fire extinguishers. One was photographed waving a hammer—perhaps the same one used to smash the control room window.
They then stepped out of the carriage a second time, but turned to throw water bottles and umbrellas into the train at the passengers inside.
The verbal dispute continued, with the doors still being jammed open, and the driver frantically calling his colleagues on his intercom for help.
At this time, some protesters again entered the carriage, focusing their attention specifically on the passenger they had slapped earlier in the fighting. He fought back, but most other passengers had fled by this time.
There was a series of skirmishes. At one stage, a group of four men and a woman surrounded an older man in a grey shirt and fought with him (above).
The woman, wearing a black mask and green gloves, turned to see that the beating was being filmed.
The radicals had been trained to stop anyone filming acts which show them in a negative light, and had organized groups of censors, typically carrying black umbrellas. She broke away from the group to run towards the person filming.
She used her hand to block the lens of the person filming (above).
At 10:44pm, a person was seen taking a fire extinguisher and firing it into the carriage.
The train compartment was soon filled with a thick fog (above).
At this time the radicals noticed a woman standing on the platform recording what was happening on a mobile phone. A group of them grabbed her (above).
She resisted but was outnumbered and her camera phone reportedly taken from her (above).
Many passengers, horrified by the fighting, dialed 999---more than 50 calls were received by emergency telephone operators calling for police to come to Prince Edward Station at this time.
The protesters, after some discussion, moved to the far corner of the platform, stripped off their black clothes, and put on ordinary clothing, some dressing in white tops or other colors to appear as regular passengers.
They did this behind a makeshift wall of umbrellas. However the scene was partly captured by video cameras.
Also by this time, members of the public were hurrying to the escalators to get as far away as possible, while others moved to the opposite end of the train from the protesters.
Someone entered the train on the opposite platform (number four) and pulled the emergency alarm.
Many of the radical protesters were now wearing normal clothes (below).
SMOKE SEEN
MTR staff noticed smoke or gas of some sort coming out of a carriage and again called the police and fire service. (All this took place in a chaotic eight-minute period between 10:42 and 10:50 pm.)
By 10:50 pm, riot officers in the vicinity were heading into Prince Edward Station. They had been told to go down to platforms three and four to arrest the radicals, and render whatever assistance was needed to passengers who had been beaten or robbed.
CLOSING THE STATION
At about this time, a police officer suggested to MTR executives that the service, despite it being one of Hong Kong’s busiest lines, should be halted.
Staff were reluctant to do so, and instead said they would prefer to maintain service on the line but get trains to bypass Prince Edward Station, so no innocent passengers could end up at risk.
The station could be closed, but with trains allowed to pass through without stopping.
ALL PASSENGERS ASKED TO LEAVE
At 10:53 pm, the MTR staff used the public address system to ask any remaining passengers to leave the trains and the station immediately.
A number of travellers disembarked at this time and headed to the escalators that would lead to the surface.
Minutes later, once the passengers were out, station gates were locked and or guarded to prevent people entering or re-entering. The place was quickly secured.
Inside the station, police moved rapidly down the escalator. Three minutes later, at 10:56 pm, they reached platforms three and four.
Protesters, some of whom had not fully changed clothes, spotted them arriving and started running, some along the platform, and others moving into and through the trains, which were stationary on both sides.
Officers used foam weapons and batons to try to catch the fleeing protesters.
Some would later complain that officers grabbed them roughly, but there is really no other way to seize someone running away from you.
Officers succeeded in detaining a number of protesters, and assembled them seated on the ground.
One young man in a black t-shirt leapt to his feet and ran along the platform. Police tried to give chase, but a young man in green (see above) attacked them with an umbrella, distracting them just long enough for the youth to jump over the side of an escalator (picture below) and run up it.
From the train that was stationary on platform four, at least ten protesters attacked police with “sharp objects” and umbrellas.
Police ordered protesters out of the trains on both platforms.
While some protesters were now in regular clothing, appearing to be normal passengers, officers could see a number still dressed in black clothes, with the telltale masks, helmets and backpacks.
Some of the protesters flatly refused to leave the trains and altercations followed, in which officers used batons and pepper spray.
In some cases, police had to enter the carriages to pull the protesters out.
Some politicians would later say that the police did not limit their actions to people dressed as protesters and may have hurt innocent passengers. This may well be true, as it was difficult to differentiate between protesters who had changed clothes, and regular passengers who may have chosen to remain.
However, other people have pointed out that the shared videos show that a number of the "passengers attacked" were young people hiding masks and other protester equipment in their bags. Readers will make up their own minds on that question.
But whether all the people arrested were protesters or not, no live guns were used. Police used batons and one pointed a rubber or sponge projectile-launcher at radicals resisting arrest on the train at platform four.
One famous image/ video clip (below) showed a scene which would later be widely distributed by opposition politicians as "passengers being brutally attacked". But other observers pointed out that the individuals may have been radical protesters resisting arrest, given the equipment they dropped--masks, umbrella, and helmet. Again, readers will make up their own minds on this issue.
Police succeeded in detaining all the remaining protesters. Given the amount of fighting that had taken place, and the way some people had interfered with arrests, officers decided to declare platforms three and four to be a crime scene, and asked reporters to leave. They also called for ambulances, in case anyone needed medical help.
FIREFIGHTERS ARRIVE
At 11:06 pm, fire service officers arrived in response to calls about the smoke seen on the platforms. They arrived at Exit B1, which was locked, and, having cutters with them, simply broke in.
At 11:10 pm, MTR chiefs made the decision to suspend all train services on both the Kwun Tong Line and the Tsuen Wan Line.
Two minutes after that, fire officers reported back to their headquarters that they were satisfied that there was no fire at Prince Edward Station.
Ambulance workers arrived at Exit B1 at 11:14 pm, but the police officer guarding the gates said that he believed that no one had been injured inside the station. This turned out to be incorrect.
Separately, another ambulance crew responding to calls from passengers who had seen protesters beating people on the train, also arrived at the station—reaching Exit E at 11:17 pm.
MTR staff were guarding that gate, but allowed the ambulance staff to slip inside.
Down on the two platforms, there was continued lack of clarity for some time about the number of injured people. At first, emergency workers thought it was seven, but then added two, taking the total to nine.
Soon after midnight, fire service officers, police, ambulance staff, and MTR staff met for a discussion near the gate. At that time, a probationary ambulance officer wrote down that the number of individuals needing attention was 10.
CROWD GATHERS ABOVE
Meanwhile, above ground, a large crowd of protesters had gathered outside Prince Edward Station, having read on the LIHKG online bulletin board about problems on the train.
The post did not mention the presence of protesters at all, painting the incident as a repeat of the “gangster attack” on innocent passengers at Yuen Long MTR station on July 21.
“Crazy, after getting into Prince Edward Station, police officers hit whoever they saw,” an LIHKG user wrote.
So the lengthy fight between protesters and passengers was changed into a different tale on LIHKG – police randomly attacked innocent travelling passengers.
UNSAFE ABOVE GROUND
But back to the scene at platforms 3 and 4. The presence of so many hostile people above ground meant that emergency service workers decided it would be unsafe to transfer injured people by normal means from the station to ambulances.
So a decision was made to transport them to another station, where the ambulance crew could meet them and take them to hospital. Lai Chi Kok station was chosen for this purpose.
The ambulance officer inside the station found that the final count of people needing medical attention was actually seven—which was the corrected figure he put down on paper.
The MTR staff did their part by organizing a special train to carry 45 arrested protesters away from Prince Edward Station, including the seven injured parties.
It arrived at Lai Chi Kok Station at 1:28 am.
Escorted by police and ambulance officers, the seven injured protesters were taken to Princess Margaret Hospital and Caritas Medical Centre, while the other 38 were taken to Kwai Chung Police Station.
But, in the description of events that was now circulating on LIHKG, the fight was no longer an altercation between protesters and the travelling public but a spontaneous attack by the police.
“Police officers assaulted and arrested civilians inside Mong Kok [sic] MTR Station, which was violent and an abuse of power,” an LIHKG user reported.
“Police officers rushed into the train compartment to hit people vigorously, like what the people dressed in white had assaulted others in the 721 Yuen Long Incident,” said another.
This version of the story, in which the protesters ' presence had been entirely omitted, was widely spread in minutes.
The language used escalated. “The Police launched terrorist attack in Prince Edward Station, must seek international assistance,” said another post, widely shared.
That was shocking enough. But the alternative narrative was about to get much more dramatic.
DEATHS MENTIONED
At 2:21 am, a netizen wrote: “People at the scene claimed that someone had been beaten to death. Haven’t fact checked yet!”
LIHKG allows anonymous posts offering rumours, so it was impossible to locate who was planting this version of events.
Reporters and police actually at the scene said no one present at that time was pushing stories about killings.
PRESS CONFERENCE
At 3:00 am, police held a stand-up press briefing at which they described the events of the evening.
There were no discussions about deaths, or even serious injuries, and no questions were asked by reporters about such subjects.
At that time, both police and reporters focused on the original story: protesters smashed up Mongkok station and held a pitched battle with passengers on a train going to Prince Edward station from about 10:42 pm. Members of the public were physically attacked. Police arrived at 10:56 pm and made 45 arrests.
‘SECRET KILLINGS’
It wasn’t until the next evening, at 5:15 pm (on Sunday, September 1) that the alternative story about secret killings really started to take wing.
A LIHKG writer wrote: “The reason for closing the station was that the Police had killed several citizens, so the Police had to tidy up the scene.”
His allegation continued: “If the evidence could not be destroyed, the scene had to be tidied up to create an impression that the deceased died of their/ his own mistakes or attacks by protesters.”
This was posted as if it was an eyewitness report.
It was followed by many other comments and posts on the same lines, including this one, which appeared at 8:19 pm: “Seriously suspecting that someone had died at Prince Edward last night… The station ended up being closed for one day. Undoubtedly destroying evidence.”
The story quickly spread into social media, and later into the newspapers.
The ambulance workers' confusion over the estimates of how many people were injured was presented as “evidence” of skullduggery.
Within hours, there was a widespread belief among some radical protesters that six people had been murdered by police at Prince Edward MTR station. This was later backed up by "reports" from hospitals and mortuaries "confirming" the story of a murder or murders.
‘NO DEATHS’
The following day, Monday, September 2, a reporter at the government press conference asked Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung to respond to the accusations of deaths inside the station on August 31.
Cheung blandly replied that there were no deaths at that place on that date. All sources present at the event – MTR staff, police, fire fighters, ambulance staff – were in full agreement on this point. No one was dead, or critically ill or even seriously hurt.
But the rumor was now soaring. Funeral flowers began to appear in huge piles at the station.
Opposition members of the Legislative Council took up the cry.
This would continue indefinitely, with video allegations of the “murders” receiving hundreds of thousands of views, month after month, most with a breathless tone of a dark conspiracy.
SMASHED SAFETY CAMERAS
Lord David Alton, a British peer with an astonishingly high gullibility level, decided that the reports that the Hong Kong police were murdering large numbers of people were “credible”.
Some media focused on the fact that footage from MTR cameras on the camera was not available. However MTR staff said that some cameras had been smashed by protesters (below) while others showed material that could not be shared, as it was likely to be sub judice -- used later in court.
ALIVE AND WELL
A Chinese language publication, EastWeek, did a comprehensive study showing that all of the people declared dead could be seen to be alive and well.
But for many people, the story of the 'murders' cannot be shaken.
Still today, a year later, there are funeral services for the “six killed by police” at Prince Edward Station.
SUMMARY
The video evidence shows clearly that a number of passengers were beaten by protesters in a battle between 10:42 and 10:50 pm. This is not in dispute.
Other video clips show police battling with people dressed in white tops on the train--but were they protesters or passengers? Or a mix? The reader can decide on that issue.
The document showing the number of injured people was altered--is this because there was confusion at the time, or were ambulance staff hiding murders? The reader can decide.
MTR operatives, ambulance staff, firefighters and police say 45 people, none dead or critically ill, were taken on a train to another station. On the internet, anonymous people said six were killed and taken away secretly. Again, the reader can decide.
THE REAL ISSUE
Today, a year later, the majority of people, even in the so-called "yellow newsrooms", accept that no one was killed or even badly injured that night.
Given that fact, perhaps the most extraordinary thing about this incident is the readiness of the mainstream media to go with the version of the tale found on anonymous internet discussion rooms, and journalists' unwillingness to do even the most basic form of investigation of the facts and details of the case.
It does not reflect well on my profession that so many of the stories behind the media narratives eventually emerge not from the media, but from the Hong Kong public.
Thank God for citizen journalists and camera-phones.
Peace.
