Hong Kong holds 9 for alleged terrorism

Hong Kong police arrested nine people, including six secondary students, on suspicion of engaging in terrorist activity under the national security law.

Police said those arrested were five males and four females aged 15-39 and also included a university management-level employee, a secondary school teacher and an unemployed person.

"The operation we conducted yesterday was against gangsters (who) tried to manufacture TATP explosive inside a homemade laboratory in a hostel," said Senior Superintendent Steve Li, from the city's new national security unit.

Triacetone triperoxide has been used in attacks by extremists in Israel and London. Police accused the group of planning to use the explosive to bomb courts, cross-harbor tunnels, railways and trash cans on the street "to maximize damage caused to the society."

Police seized various items from the group, including a small amount of explosives, equipment and raw materials to produce TATP, air guns, mobile phones, SIM cards, an operating manual on how to plant bombs, and plans to leave the city.