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Phila Siu

Stuart Lau

Clifford Lo

Hong Kong had its first direct encounter with the terror of Islamic State on Tuesday when a family from the city holidaying in south Germany was attacked on a train by an ­Afghan refugee said to be linked to the jihadist group.
‘Kill these infidels’: Islamic State video shows youth who attacked Hongkongers with axe on German train
The 17-year-old attacker was shot dead by German police as he fled the bloody scene after using an axe and a knife against the four Hongkongers – a married couple, their daughter and her boyfriend. The two men, aged 62 and 31, suffered critical injuries and were under intensive care in the city of Wuerzburg.
Hong Kong victims of Germany axe attack travelled for family wedding
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying condemned the attack, hours before the jihadist group claimed responsibility. Leung sent a team of four immigration officials to accompany four of the victims’ relatives who are due to arrive in Germany on Wednesday.
It is understood the family travelled to Germany after attending the wedding of another daughter in Britain.
Bastille Day attacker sent text asking for ‘more weapons’, French reports say, as another two suspects are detained
They boarded a regional train in the town of Treuchtlingen and were near Wuerzburg, Bavaria, when the Afghan refugee, who arrived in Germany two years ago, started attacking ­passengers.
The 62 year old, surnamed Yau, and Edmund Au Yeung, the boyfriend of Tracy Yau Hiu-tung, suffered severe head, neck, ­abdominal and hand wounds after they tried to protect their loved ones.
Dr Georg Ertl, head of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University Hospital of Wuerzburg, in which Yau and Au Yeung were in intensive care, said on Tuesday night their conditions could not be evaluated at such an early stage, or over the next few days.
German TV footage showed the floor of the train compartment covered with blood.


At least one eyewitness said the attacker shouted “Allahu ­Akbar” – God is greatest – during the assault. Investigators later seized a “hand-painted IS flag” in his room at his foster home in the nearby town of Ochsenfurt.
“He was described as a devout Muslim, but not in any way one who was a radical or fanatic,” Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann said. “We are aware of the claim of responsibility by Islamic State, but … the investigation has not produced any evidence thus far that would indicate this young man was part of an ­Islamist network.”
A news agency linked to ­Islamic State said the teenager was an IS “fighter”.
The attack came just days after a man said to be an Islamic State follower ploughed a lorry into a crowd in Nice, France, killing 84 people.
Father of Nice attacker insists ‘he had no links to religion’ but had previously suffered mental problems
A German official with knowledge of the case told the Post that the two Hong Kong women caught up in the attack – Tracy Yau, 26, and her mother, 58 – suffered “severe but not life threatening” injuries.
The daughter works as an arts administration trainee at the ­Leisure and Cultural Services ­Department.
Another son of the Yaus, Chak-ming, 17, was also on the train but he escaped injury. He is a fifth-former at Munsang College in Kowloon City. The school’s vice-principal, Louis Lui Hang-sum, said he had contacted the teenager via WhatsApp and confirmed he was unhurt.

Lui added that an alumnus, who was in Germany, would go to the hospital and offer help.
“According to my knowledge, they also got some insurance,” ­senior immigration officer Kenneth Tong King-hin said before leaving Hong Kong for Germany last night. “They also bought ­insurance when travelling to Germany. We may also liaise with the insurance company to assist in their return.”
The attack was the first with an explicit terrorist motive in Germany, which has been at the heart of the Middle Eastern refugee ­crisis since last year.
The attacker arrived in Germany as an unaccompanied minor two years ago and had been living with a foster family south of Wuerzburg for a few months, officials said.
Fourteen other passengers on the train were reportedly in a state of shock and receiving treatment by specialists.
Germany has thus far escaped the kind of large-scale jihadist attacks seen in Nice, in which 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel used a truck to mow down people leaving a Bastille Day fireworks display. Islamic State also claimed that attack.
Analysts said the latest attack in Germany will deal a blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee-welcoming policies. About 1.2 million refugees are estimated to be living in Germany. Latest estimates by the European commission put the number of asylum seekers in Europe by the end of 2017 at around three million.
Additional reporting by Reuters




Two Hongkongers critically hurt in German axe attack by Afghan refugee who kept Islamic State flag at home

Train attack victims Yau Hiu-tung and her boyfriend Edmund Au Yeung in an undated photo. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Police officers walk along train tracks in Wuerzburg southern Germany on July 19, 2016 a day after a man attacked train passengers with an axe. German authorities said they had found a hand-painted IS flag among the belongings of the man, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, who seriously injured four members of a family of tourists from Hong Kong in his rampage. The teenage assailant was killed as he tried to flee. / AFP PHOTO / DANIEL ROLAND

‘Kill these infidels’: Islamic State video shows youth who attacked Hongkongers with axe on German train

A still image from an undated video Islamic State posted July 19, 2016 in which a man whom it identifies as the Afghan refugee who attacked passengers with an axe on a train in Germany vows to carry out a suicide mission and urges other Muslims to do the same. Photo: Reuters

A still image from an undated video Islamic State posted July 19, 2016 in which a man whom it identifies as the Afghan refugee who attacked passengers with an axe on a train in Germany vows to carry out a suicide mission and urges other Muslims to do the same. Social Media via REUTERS TV ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE.

epa05431173 Police stand guard overnight outside a train near Wuerzburg, Bavaria, Germany, 18 July 2016. A 17-year-old Afghan was shot dead by police after wounding four people, three critically, in a slashing spree aboard the commuter train, according to media reports. EPA/KARL-JOSEF HILDENBRAND

Train attack vuctims Yau Hiu-tung and boyfriend Edmund Au Yeung. Photo: SCMP Pictures (Handout)

Hong Kong victims of Germany axe attack travelled for family wedding

Tracy Yau and her boyfriend Edmund Au Yeung. Photo: SCMP Pictures

epa05431128 Blood stains are seen on the regional train on which a man allegedly wielding an axe attacked passengers in Wuerzburg, Germany, 18 July 2016. Reports state that a man allegedly wielding an axe injured multiple passengers on a regional train in Wuerzburg. The attacker was shot by police. EPA/Karl-Josef Hildenbrand ATTENTION EDITORS : GRAPHIC CONTENT BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE

After Nice, we all must learn to live with a certain amount of terrorism

A woman mourns on the Promenade des Anglais, scene of the most recent terrorist atrocity in France. Photo: EPA

A plainclothes policeman (bottom R) watches tourists as he stands behind a statue of a lion outside the Forbidden City at Tiananamen gate in Beijing on October 31, 2013. A Uighur group dismissed Beijing's account of a "terrorist attack" in Tiananmen Square as a dubious pretext to repress the ethnic minority on October 31, even as state-run media hinted at potential repercussions. AFP PHOTO / Ed Jones

Palestinians pass bags through an Israeli barrier blocking access to the al-Fawar refugee camp south of the West Bank city of Hebron on July 6, 2016 after they closed access to the camp following an attack targeting an Israeli driver near the camp earlier in the week, as Palestinians try to visit relatives to celebrate Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. Israeli troops locked down the occupied West Bank's most populous city Hebron and surrounding villages on July 2, 2016, after two Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks nearby. / AFP PHOTO / HAZEM BADER

Islamic State likely to target Southeast Asia in coming months, analysts say

In this June 2014 file photo, a member loyal to Islamic State waves a flag in Raqqa in Syria. Photo: Reuters

epa05037182 Police officer and soldiers on security duty inside Galerie de la Reine following the terror alert level being elevated to 4/4, in Brussels, Belgium, 22 November 2015. Belgium raised the alert status to maximum because of a 'serious and imminent' threat of an attack. The Metro line remains closed and all Belgian league one and two soccer matches have been cancelled. The Belgian government said it had concrete evidence of a planned terrorist attack that would have employed weapons and explosives. EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ

Father of Nice attacker insists ‘he had no links to religion’ but had previously suffered mental problems

Two Hongkongers critically hurt in German axe attack by Afghan refugee who kept Islamic State flag at home

Hong Kong immigration officials to fly to Germany with relatives of injured