A 65-year-old Hong Kong man hanged himself on Tuesday at a Shenzhen relief management station, which provides social welfare services for the homeless.
Station manager Fu Tianyue said that the man, surnamed Wong, had still been interacting with staff at around 11:20pm. At 11:30pm, however, he was found to have hanged himself from metal railings mounted near the wall.
Fu said that Wong had arrived a week earlier and that he had not shown any signs of unusual behaviour. He did not state that he was from Hong Kong nor leave any contact details, and the cause of his suicide remains unknown.
The station is currently attempting to contact his family.
An eyewitness claimed to have seen a staff member hurling abuse at Wong shortly before his death, but Fu said that this was not possible, and that all employees treat those in need as their own family.
“After the incident,” Fu added, “we all felt terrible.”
According to police at the Luohu border crossing, a coroner has confirmed that Wong’s death was in fact suicide. However, police did not look into the alleged abuse by staff.
If you are experiencing negative feelings, please call the Samaritans, a 24-hour multilingual suicide prevention hotline, at 2896 0000.
