Twelve students were injured in an explosion at Baptist University on Thursday, with one of them in a serious condition.
Hong Kong fire service is investigating whether the explosion caused by flour dust catching fire.
The students, four men and eight women, are believed to have been among a group of 20 celebrating a birthday in halls on the Kowloon Tong campus when the incident happened. All were rushed to Queen Elizabeth Hospital or Kwong Wah Hospital suffering burns to their faces, necks, hands or feet.
A 21-year-old woman, surnamed Chan, was in a serious condition, but is now listed as stable, as are four others. The remaining seven have been treated and discharged.
The Fire Services Department said that it received a call at 12.54am on Thursday, and seven fire trucks and 11 ambulances were sent to the scene.
According to the department, there was no sign of fire at the scene, and no structural damage to the building. Only the students had been affected.
Later on Thursday, the university’s acting president Clayton MacKenzie wrote to students and staff in an email expressing sadness at the incident.
He said university personnel would be offering help to those involved.
“We are distressed by this incident, and will do all we can to look into the cause and prevent a recurrence,” he wrote.
The vice-president of the university’s student union, Mak Kwan-wai, said it had learned that the university would deal with the injuries of the students as a priority, instead of taking disciplinary action against them.
It will also provide financial help, and counselling, for students. Meanwhile, the South China Post has been told the university is to issue a reminder to hall tutors about the safety issues raised by the incident.
A police source said officials believe students were throwing flour at each other, and the dust was ignited by a burning candle on a birthday cake.
Lam Chun-man, a former director of the Fire Services Department, said he could not tell exactly what had caused the fire because had not been to the scene, but based on what media reported, he believes a dust explosion is the most likely cause.
Fung Ying-sing, an honourary associate professor at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Hong Kong, said dust explosions can occur when a large amount of organic powder, such as flour and corn starch, are set on fire in an oxygenated environment.
In 2015, a flammable starch-based powder explosion happened in the air at a water park in New Taipei City in Taiwan, killing 15 people, and injuring more than 500, 200 seriously.
Five women from Hong Kong were injured. The explosion occurred when a large volume of unknown coloured powder spewed out into the air at an open stage in the Formosa water park while staging a “Colour Play Asia” party with about 1,000 spectators, which caught on fire at night on a Saturday.
