'Blocked roads delayed ambulance in Tseung Kwan O'

Firefighters who found the injured student called for an ambulance at 1.11am and he eventually arrived in hospital at 1.59am. File photo: RTHK

The Fire Services Department (FSD) said blocked roads in the vicinity of a car park in Tseung Kwan O, where a university student was critically injured after apparently falling from height, delayed its paramedics by several minutes.



Police and anti-government protesters were engaged in a stand-off at that time and officers had fired several rounds of tear gas during the confrontations. Protesters say the 22-year-old student fell as he was fleeing the tear gas and claim some officers blocked the ambulance from reaching the injured.



In its statement, the FSD said police did not block the firefighters who arrived at the scene first. It said firefighters found the 22-year-old on a podium on the second floor of the car park at Sheung Tak Estate. The firemen requested an ambulance at 1.11am.



However, traffic was blocked on Tong Ming Street when an ambulance was trying to get to the car park, but the paramedics did not know what was causing the congestion, the department said. All they could see was some private cars and a double decker bus, it said.



So the ambulance was then forced to take another route to enter the public housing estate, only to find its way was blocked again at 1:20am near Kwong Ying House, where some private cars and fire services vehicles were parked.



Three paramedics had to leave the ambulance and walk to the car park. They arrived at the scene at 1:30am and took the student to hospital 11 minutes later, reaching the facility at 1:59am.



The FSD said the paramedics did not come into contact with any police officers at the scene.



When the firefighters were attending the injured person initially, some police officers had arrived and they were informed that first aid was being given to the injured man and they left, it said.



On accusations that police had pointed guns at some first aiders and sent them away from the scene, the statement said the firefighters were concentrating on giving first aid and did not notice such a thing.