A hiker climbing Hong Kong’s highest peak has been missing for more than 18 hours after calling police for help, with temperatures on the mountain falling below freezing.
Police on Friday morning said they had received the call at around 4pm on Thursday from a Mandarin-speaking man, who said he was hiking on Tai Mo Shan but could no longer continue because of the cold weather.
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Emergency services launched a search and rescue operation involving 40 officers from the police force, Fire Services Department, Government Flying Service and Civil Aid Service. But the man was still missing as of 10.30am Friday, police said.
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The Transport Department announced at around 9am that “due to [an] emergency incident, all vehicles cannot enter Tai Mo Shan Road via Route Twisk”.
According to the Hong Kong Observatory, an intense winter monsoon and a band of clouds covering the coast of Guangdong province have brought the coldest temperatures for the season so far.
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The mercury dropped to a minimum of 8.6 degrees Celsius (47.5 Fahrenheit) in urban areas on Friday morning, the lowest this winter.
Temperatures on the 957-metre tall Tai Mo Shan hovered around freezing, falling to as low as -1.6 degrees in the early morning – the sixth-lowest on record in the area.
As of 10am, the mercury had reached about 2.5 degrees on the mountain.
More from South China Morning Post:
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