The 2019 Yuen Long attack, also known as the 721 incident, refers to a mob attack that occurred in Yuen Long, a town in the New Territories of Hong Kong, on the evening of 21 July 2019. It took place in the context of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. An armed mob of suspected triad members dressed in white indiscriminately attacked civilians on streets with steel rods and rattan canes, before attacking members of the public in nearby Yuen Long station including the elderly, children, protesters returning from a demonstration in Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island, journalists and lawmakers.Despite over 24,000 calls to the 999 emergency hotline, the police arrived 39 minutes after the attacks and one minute after the mobs had left the station. Around 30 non-police tactical unit trained police officers were assigned to standby at Tuen Mun Police Station for contingency. No arrests were made that night. At least 45 people were injured in the incident, including a suspected pregnant woman. However, the Hospital Authority reassured the public that accident and emergency departments at public hospitals had not received any cases of pregnant women related to the incident.The government later distanced itself from the violence, and rejected accusations that it or the police had colluded with the mob. Over the following two years, the government and police commented that the public were misled into seeing the Yuen Long attacks as a “one-sided indiscriminate terrorist attack”, as the incident was in fact “started off as a gang fight involving a sizeable number of participants from both sides.”
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