- The woman, whom officers were still to identify, was thought to be fleeing a drug den as police moved in
- She fell from the first-floor window into an alley
A pregnant woman who fell from a Hong Kong housing block during an apparent attempt to escape a police drugs bust died early on Monday, hours after the baby was delivered in hospital.
The newborn boy, delivered by emergency caesarean section, was in critical condition in the intensive care unit of Kwong Wah Hospital in Yau Ma Tei as of 1pm on Monday, a Hospital Authority spokesman said.
Police officers were still trying to identify the woman, who was thought to be about 40 years old, having found no ID on her.
A force insider said he believed the woman was in possession of a recognisance form, after arriving from Nepal, and her husband was not in the city. The form is a temporary identification document issued by the Immigration Department, which permits the holder to remain in the city, but not take up employment.
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Shortly after 7.30pm on Sunday, the woman, who was nine months pregnant, and her female friend, 27, were in the first-floor flat of a six-storey building on Reclamation Street in Mong Kok.
A police source said he believed the flat was used as a den for drug users, the two women among them.
He said that, at the time of the incident, officers from the Mong Kok special duty squad were carrying out an anti-narcotics investigation in the building.
"We believed a lookout noticed our operation and alerted the two women, who then climbed out of the window to escape," the source said.
The two women fell down when they tried to climb onto the scaffolding of the adjacent building. They landed in an alley. Emergency services were called in when a passer-by found them injured.
The older woman was taken to Kwong Wah Hospital, where the baby was delivered. A government spokeswoman said she died in hospital at 4.15am on Monday. The source said there would be an autopsy.
The other woman was sent to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei, where she was in a stable condition.
Inside the flat, officers seized HK$1,600 (US$206) worth of illegal drugs, including heroin.
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Officers arrested the 27-year-old woman for possessing illegal drugs and failing to produce identification.
Separately, officers from the Sham Shui Po special duty squad arrested two men and one woman and seized HK$17,000 worth of illegal drugs in Shek Kip Mei at about 2am on Monday.
During the operation, police stopped one of the suspects " a 25-year-old man " outside Tung Lung House at Tai Hang Tung Estate. Officers seized about seven grams of cocaine.
In a follow-up raid on his flat inside the building, police arrested the other two suspects " a man, 68, and a woman, 25 " and seized another 12 grams of cocaine and 19 grams of cannabis, along with packaging equipment.
Police arrested the three suspects for drug trafficking " an offence that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
As of Monday afternoon, the three Hongkongers were being held for questioning and had not been charged.
Police figures show the number of cocaine seizures rose by nearly 145 per cent to 1.3 tonnes in 2019, from 538kg in the year before.
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