Police blow up suspicious object in Causeway Bay MTR station

Causeway Bay was disrupted on the eve of Hong Kong's Olympic equestrian events as police detonated a suspicious object found in the MTR station yesterday afternoon.

At about 3.30pm, a passer-by spotted a silver cylinder - 16cm long and 5cm in diameter - near Exit D of the station. Officers quickly sealed two other exits and a bomb disposal squad was called in.

Officers of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau last night confirmed that the object was a hoax bomb made from a marine flare. 'Three electrical wires were attached to the outside of the cylinder by electrical tape,' a police spokesman said.

A section of Lockhart Road between East Point Road and Percival Street was closed before the object was removed at 5.10pm. Trains operated normally and other exits remained open during the incident.

Eric Cheng Tak-ming, deputy railway district commander, said: 'It was a homemade firework. Its power was very small.'

The incident had nothing to do with terrorism and nothing was written on the device, he said.

Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing, said: 'The security threat to Hong Kong remains moderate.'