A 59-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of indecent assault after a woman reported being splashed with a liquid on the MTR.

People get on the East Rail Line of MTR, on September 6, 2025. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

The police made the arrest on Tuesday evening after reviewing surveillance footage of the incident on the East Rail line of the MTR between Tai Po Market and Tai Wo stations, Acting Chief Inspector Ng Chin-wang of the Tai Po district crime division said on Tuesday.

‘Deviant behaviour’

Ng said that a 20-year-old female student reported the incident to station staff at Tai Wo and called the police after suspecting that she had been touched by a passenger and finding an unknown clear white liquid on her clothing at around 7pm on Monday evening.

A 59-year-old local man, surnamed Luk, was arrested in Tai Po on Tuesday afternoon on suspicion of indecent assault. The Tai Po crime unit is handling the investigation.

A preliminary investigation suggests that the suspect acted on his own in the train carriage and identified his target before committing the act. He also did not know the student personally.

People walk in the Hong Kong’s bustling Mong Kok district in March 2023. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Ng also urged people to step forward and report such incidents to the police.

“We urge victims of sexual crimes and witnesses to come forward and allow the police to take further action, so that we can join hands to fight against deviant behaviour in our society,” he said in Cantonese.

‘No real consequences’

Media coverage in recent years has shone a light on cases when individuals were prosecuted for splashing liquids on women in public spaces. The act is seen as a type of sexual violence.

Earlier this year, a 34-year-old man was charged with loitering after allegedly splashing an unknown liquid on three women in separate incidents in Sha Tin.

In September 2024, a mainland Chinese neuroscience PhD student at the City University of Hong Kong was fined HK$5,000 after pleading guilty to splashing water mixed with his semen onto a woman’s buttocks at the university.

The prosecution later sought a heavier sentence and moved to issue an arrest warrant after the man left Hong Kong. Concern groups called for a stronger sentence, saying the initial penalty sent the message that sexual violence has “no real consequences.”