5 hikers fall ill as hot weather grips Hong Kong on public holiday

Five hikers fell ill in separate incidents across Hong Kong on Monday as hot weather gripped the city on the final day of the Chung Yeung Festival long weekend.

In one incident at Po Pin Chau, a popular hiking destination in Sai Kung, a 62-year-old mainland Chinese woman was hiking with friends near the High Island Reservoir East Dam when she became dizzy and weak at about 10.30am.

Suspected of suffering from heatstroke, she was rescued by the Government Flying Service and flown to hospital for treatment.

At about 12.20pm, a family of three – a couple and their son – were hiking from Tai Tong Country Park along the MacLehose Trail when the mother, in her fifties, felt unwell and vomited near Tai Lam Chung Reservoir.

Her husband called for assistance, and she was airlifted to Ruttonjee Hospital for suspected heatstroke treatment.

In another case reported at about 12.40pm, a brother and sister hiking from Sam Mun Tsai to Ma Shi Chau in Tai Po sought assistance near Tong Kai Tseng after the 63-year-old woman complained of heart problems.

She was flown by helicopter to Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Chai Wan for treatment.

At around the same time, a woman in her forties fell ill while hiking on Ho Hok Shan in Yuen Long. She reported feeling unwell near a cemetery, also showing signs of heatstroke. Firefighters assisted her and her three companions down the hill.

Later, at 2.09pm, an elderly man hiking at Luk Wu Tung in Plover Cove Country Park in Tai Po reported feeling physically weak and called for assistance.

The Hong Kong Observatory said an anticyclone aloft was bringing generally fine weather to southern China, while an easterly airstream affecting the Guangdong coast was gradually moderating.

Conditions across the city were hot and dry during the day, with the daily maximum temperature reaching 32 degrees Celsius (89.6 Fahrenheit) at the weather forecaster’s urban headquarters and several degrees higher in parts of the New Territories.