Story highlights A tenth person was arrested in Hong Kong on charges of conspiring to manufacture explosives

Some in the group had links to a radical political group, police say

Student pro-democracy leader Joshua Wong calls the arrests a "farce"

Hong Kong (CNN) Ten people, some with alleged ties to a radical political organization, have been arrested in Hong Kong, accused of conspiring to manufacture explosives, police in the Chinese territory say.

At a news conference Monday, police said they had arrested five men and four women, ranging in age from 21 to 34, whom they described as members of a "local syndicate."

A tenth person, a 58-year-old man, was arrested Monday afternoon at Lo Wu, a border crossing between Hong Kong and Mainland China.

Police said their investigations showed that two men in the group were planning to test the powder of an explosive device. They raided a location in the territory's remote Sai Kung district Sunday evening, where they arrested the pair, seized chemicals and detonated explosives.

Chemicals recovered during a subsequent house search were tested and found to be precursors of TATP, a highly volatile explosive thought to have been used in the 2005 London bombings and other terror attacks.

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