Eight more people have been arrested in connection with the renovation of the high-rise apartments that were engulfed in a massive fire that left 128 people dead, Hong Kong’s anti-corruption agency says.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption said in a statement that seven men and one woman, aged between 40 and 63, including scaffolding subcontractors, directors of an engineering consultancy and project managers supervising the renovation, had been detained.
The agency said it had also searched their offices on Friday and seized documents and bank records. The investigation over possible corruption in the renovation project was launched on Thursday after the fire broke out.
The arrests were announced after firefighters found dozens more bodies on Friday, taking the death toll to 128, with many still unaccounted for.
Police earlier announced three officials from the construction company had been arrested.
As well as the towers being covered with sheets of protective mesh and plastic that may not meet fire standards, some windows on one unaffected building were sealed with a foam material that had been installed by a construction company carrying out maintenance work, police previously said.
“We have reason to believe that the company’s responsible parties were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties,” said Eileen Chung, a Hong Kong police superintendent.
