Police arrest 4 suspected bosses of home invasion crew in Chiba
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
For the first time, police have arrested suspected ringleaders in a series of home invasions and robberies carried out by recruits found through social media, investigators said Dec. 5.
Hiroto Fukuchi, 26, Takuya Saito, 26, Karura Murakami, 27, and Shota Watanabe, 26, are accused of orchestrating a home invasion resulting in injury in Chiba Prefecture.
Investigators said the four men instructed three others, who have already been indicted, to break into a home in Ichikawa early on Oct. 17 last year.
A woman in her 50s at the home suffered orbital and facial fractures in the attack. The perpetrators made off with 48,000 yen ($310), a cash card and other items.
Police believe the four suspects issued real-time instructions to the assailants via nine accounts on the encrypted messaging app Signal.
The case is one of 18 robberies committed between late August and early November last year across Tokyo and the neighboring prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa.
Many of the minions who were caught were first-time offenders with regular day jobs, investigators said, adding that they had been recruited online through shady job postings.
Some of the suspects said they committed the crimes because they feared repercussions from their anonymous but intimidating “bosses,” investigators said.
Takuya Saito is suspected of orchestrating a home burglary in Chiba Prefecture in October 2024. (Photo by Sayuri Ide)
Authorities established a joint task force in October last year to investigate what they describe as “anonymous, fluid crime groups” loosely connected through social media and believed to be behind the string of robberies.
So far, 51 individuals accused of carrying out the robberies have been arrested, and investigators have been working to identify those who gave the orders.
(This article was written by Shomei Nagatsuma, Hiromichi Fujita and Shun Yoshimura.)
Police arrest construction firm bosses over Hong Kong fire
By Tyrone Siu, Joyce Zhou and Jessie Pang
November 28, 20256:53 AM GMT+7Updated November 28, 2025
- Summary
- Companies
- Several residential high-rises engulfed in flames
- Firefighters battle to reach those feared trapped
- Police arrest three construction firm officials
- Renovation contractors held in manslaughter probe
HONG KONG, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Hong Kong police arrested the bosses of a construction company on suspicion of manslaughter on Thursday over the city’s worst fire in nearly 80 years, which killed at least 83 people with scores more listed as missing.
By the early hours of Friday, firefighters had mostly contained the blaze raging for more than 24 hours, ripping through the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in the northern district of Tai Po. The estate had been undergoing renovations and was wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh.
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Most of the victims were found in two high-rise blocks in the eight-tower complex, Deputy Director of Fire Services Derek Armstrong Chan said.
He said firefighters found residents who were alive in several of the buildings, but gave no further details. The South China Morning Post reported one survivor was found on the stairwell of one of the buildings.
Rescuers battled intense heat, thick smoke and collapsing scaffolding and debris as they fought to reach residents feared trapped on the upper floors of the complex.
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“We expect the fire to be fully put out tonight,” Chan said. “We’ll continue to douse water to lower the temperatures,” he added.
A distraught woman carrying her daughter’s graduation photograph searched for her child outside a shelter, one of eight that authorities said are housing 900 residents.
“She and her father are still not out yet,” said the 52-year-old, who gave only her surname, Ng, as she sobbed. “They didn’t have water to save our building.”
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Police arrested two directors and an engineering consultant of Prestige Construction, a firm contracted to perform maintenance on the buildings. Police said those arrested were under suspicion of manslaughter for using unsafe materials.
“We have reason to believe that the company’s responsible parties were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties,” Police Superintendent Eileen Chung said. Prestige did not answer repeated calls for comment.
Police seized bidding documents, a list of employees, 14 computers and three mobile phones in a raid of the company’s office, the government added.
WORST FIRE SINCE 1948
The confirmed death toll rose to 83 as of midnight in Hong Kong on Thursday, Hong Kong’s emergency responders said. That made it Hong Kong’s deadliest fire since 1948, when 176 people were killed in a warehouse blaze.
The government said in the very early hours of Thursday that 279 people were listed as missing, but that figure has not been updated for 24 hours.
In a telegram to Hong Kong’s bishop, Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, Pope Leo sent “spiritual solidarity to all those suffering from the effects of this calamity, especially the injured and the families who grieve”.
Hong Kong’s leader, John Lee, said the government would set up a HK$300 million ($39 million) fund to help residents while companies including automakers Xiaomi, Xpeng and Geely as well as the charity foundation of Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma and Tencent announced donations.
Item 1 of 6 A man walks near the scene of a deadly fire, which broke out yesterday at Wang Fuk Court housing complex, as efforts to extinguish it continue, in Hong Kong, China. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
[1/6]A man walks near the scene of a deadly fire, which broke out yesterday at Wang Fuk Court housing complex, as efforts to extinguish it continue, in Hong Kong, China. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
On the second night after the blaze, dozens of evacuees set up mattresses in a nearby mall, with many saying official evacuation centres should be saved for those with greater need.
People – from elderly residents to schoolchildren – wrapped themselves in duvets and huddled in tents outside a McDonald’s restaurant and convenience shops as a steady stream of volunteers handed out snacks and toiletries.
The eight blocks of the tightly-packed complex of 2,000 apartments were home to more than 4,600 people in the financial hub, which is struggling to overcome chronic shortages of affordable housing.
Police also said they found foam material sealing windows on one unaffected building, installed in the year-long maintenance work.
The city’s development bureau has discussed gradually replacing bamboo scaffolding, opens new tab with metal scaffolding as a safety measure.
China’s President Xi Jinping urged an “all-out effort” to extinguish the fire and minimise casualties and losses, state broadcaster CCTV said.
The leadership of both the Hong Kong government and China’s Communist Party moved quickly to show they attached utmost importance to a tragedy seen as a potential test of Beijing’s grip on the semi-autonomous region.
Hong Kong’s sky-high property prices have long been a trigger for discontent and the tragedy could stoke resentment towards authorities despite efforts to tighten political and national security control.
“27TH FLOOR, ROOM 1: HE IS DEAD”
An online app showed reports of missing persons submitted through a linked Google document that detailed residents of individual towers and rooms.
It includes descriptions such as “Mother-in-law in her 70s, missing” or “one boy and one girl” or “Rooftop: 33-year-old male.”
One simply read: “27th floor, room 1: He is dead.”
Reuters could not independently verify the information on the app.
The fire has prompted comparisons to London’s Grenfell Tower inferno, which killed 72 people in 2017. That fire was blamed on firms fitting the exterior with flammable cladding, as well as failings by the government and the construction industry.
Hong Kong, one of the world’s most densely populated cities, is scattered with high-rise housing complexes. Tai Po, near the border with mainland China, is an established suburban district and home to about 300,000.
Occupied since 1983, the complex is under a government-subsidised home ownership scheme, according to property agency websites, a lifeline for the city’s middle-income families.
