Seventeen-year-old Matthew Tsang Hin-chit has been found alive by rescue teams in Hong Kong’s Ma On Shan Country Park after being reported missing seven days ago.
The case caught the city’s attention as the boy’s mother, Amy Chan, repeatedly sought help finding her child on Facebook. Alumni of Diocesan Boys’ School – where Tsang was a student – police, Fire Services Department, Civil Aid Service, and civilian rescue teams, had been searching the country park and adjacent areas over the past week.
Ma On Shan Country Park covers 28.8 square kilometres, which is equal to around 151 Victoria Parks. According to the police, Tsang was found in a bush near a stream on Wednesday.
It was unclear that whether Tsang had spent the past week in the country park, and how he survived the heavy rainfall and high winds brought by Typhoon Koinu on Sunday and Monday.
In a joint press conference held by the police and the Fire Services Department on Wednesday evening, Chow Cheuk-fung, Station Commander of Sha Tin Fire Station, said Tsang was found conscious and not wearing any clothes.
“We gave him warm clothes and energy drinks. After assessment, we thought it best to send the boy to hospital by helicopter,” Chow said in Cantonese. Tsang is currently receiving treatment at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital.
Chow added that rescue teams had used multiple ways to search for Tsang, including hiking with search and rescue dogs, and using drones to take pictures of the country park and analysing those pictures using artificial intelligence.
Twenty-eight fire trucks, nine ambulances, 112 firefighters and 24 paramedics, including a mountain rescue team, were deployed over the past seven days, searching an area of 10 square kilometres.
“Today we further narrowed down our search area to a place called Mouse Farm Stream,” Chow said, “We searched along the stream and found Matthew after my colleagues pushed aside the bushes.”
The commander said the rescue teams did not enquire as to why the boy went missing, nor about his experience over the past week. “We will try and find out more when his condition is stable,” Chow said.
Tsang went missing last Wednesday after leaving school at noon and exiting the Shek Mun MTR station in New Territories at around 1.30 pm. Tsang’s parents reported him missing to the police later that evening.
According to his mother, Tsang was last seen wearing his school uniform before going missing. He left his mobile phone at school, taking only a wallet with him.
Police last Saturday that Tsang had last been seen on Hang Shin Link in Siu Lek Yuen going in the direction of Ma On Shan Country Park. Rescue forces have since focused their attention on searching the vast country park.
It was unclear that why Tsang went missing. His mother told local media that Tsang had been experiencing academic pressure and stress recently.
“Daddy and mommy love you very much. We missed you. We are proud to have you as our son. Please come home and we will face everything together,” Tsang’s parents said in a missing person poster.
Chan posted on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon that her son had been found: “Thanks be to God! We have found Matthew, and he’s alive! We will announce details later. Thanks to everyone!”
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