The arrests come two years after anti-government protests rocked Hong Kong.
Nine people, including six secondary school students, have been arrested in Hong Kong in connection with a suspected terrorist plot.
Hong Kong police claim to have discovered an attempt by those arrested to make and plant explosives across the city.
The group consisted of five men and four women, aged between 15 and 39, who were reportedly attempting to make the explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP) in a homemade lab in a hostel. Police say they seized apparatus and raw materials used to make the substance, as well as a “trace amount” of it.
Authorities say the nine had been planning to use TATP to bomb courts, railways, cross-harbour tunnels and street bins to to “maximise damage caused to society,” and leave Hong Kong once the plot had been executed.
Police also say they froze around €64,957 in assets possibly connected to the plot.
Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said she hopes the public would “openly condemn threats of violence.”
Speaking at a news briefing, she said: “They should not be wrongly influenced by the idea that there is only government tyranny… but that breaking the law is in order, if you’re trying to achieve a certain cause.
“They should not be influenced into thinking that they can find excuses to inflict violence.”
Lam added that an envelope of white powder had been sent to her office, which the police were analysing but did not believe to be dangerous.
The incident come two years after mass anti-government protests in Hong Kong. Since the protests in 2019, authorities in the region have arrested several people on suspected terrorist activity.
