Death toll in Hong Kong apartment complex blaze rises to 146 as the city mourns

HONG KONG (AP) — The death toll in Hong Kong's apartment complex blaze rose to 146 on Sunday as investigators discovered more bodies in the burned-out buildings, while a steady stream of people placed bouquets of flowers at an ever-growing makeshift memorial at the scene.

The Hong Kong police Disaster Victim Identification Unit has been going through the buildings meticulously and has found bodies both in apartment units and on the roofs, said the officer in charge, Cheng Ka-chun.

The buildings remain structurally sound, but the search has been slow, he told reporters, still wearing his white coveralls with his hard hat and respiratory mask at his side. “It is so dark inside, and because of the low light, it is very difficult to do the work, especially in places away from the windows."

So far the team has examined four of the seven blocks, Cheng said.

Another 100 people are unaccounted for and 79 have been injured, said Tsang Shuk-yin, the head of the Hong Kong police casualty unit.

At the scene, well-wishers bowed and said short prayers, or left handwritten notes among the flowers.

“This really serves as a wake-up call for everyone, especially with these super high-rise buildings," said Lian Shuzheng, who waited in a line of hundreds of people to add her flowers to the growing cluster.

People have also donated supplies to those who lost everything in the blaze, which started Wednesday and took until Friday to fully extinguish.

The eight buildings of the Wang Fuk Court complex in the suburb of Tai Po had all been clad in bamboo scaffolding draped with nylon netting for renovations, with windows covered by polystyrene panels. Authorities were investigating whether fire codes were violated.

Hong Kong officials announced late Saturday they had ordered the immediate suspension of work on 28 building projects undertaken by the same contractor, the Prestige Construction & Engineering Company, for safety audits.

“The five alarm fire at Wang Fuk Court, Tai Po, exposed serious deficiencies of PC&E in site safety management, including the extensive use of foam boards to block up windows during building repairs,” the government said in a statement.

The company did not answer calls Sunday for comment.

Three men — the directors and an engineering consultant of a construction company — were arrested the day after the fire broke out on suspicion of manslaughter, and police said company leaders were suspected of gross negligence. Police did not identify the firm by name.

Those three were released on bail but then rearrested by Hong Kong’s anti-corruption authorities, who have also arrested a further eight suspects including scaffolding subcontractors, directors of an engineering consulting company and the renovation project managers.

The apartment complex of eight, 31-story buildings in Tai Po, a suburb near Hong Kong’s border with mainland China, was built in the 1980s. It had almost 2,000 apartments and more than 4,600 residents.

Many are now housed in short-term emergency shelters or city hotels, and authorities are working on longer-term solutions.

“It's heartbreaking,” said Jeffery Chan, a civil servant who came to pay his respects on Sunday.

“As a Hong Konger, seeing people in the place where we live lose their families, lose everything in just one night — if you put yourself in their shoes, it is unbearable. They need encouragement, support and help from the people of Hong Kong,” he said.

Preliminary investigations showed the fire started Wednesday afternoon on a lower-level scaffolding net of one of the buildings, and then spread rapidly inside as the foam panels caught fire and blew out windows, according to Chris Tang, Hong Kong's secretary for security. Winds helped the flames jump from building to building and soon seven of the eight were engulfed.

First responders found that some fire alarms in the complex, which housed many older people, did not sound when tested, according to Andy Yeung, the director of Hong Kong Fire Services.

The dead included seven Indonesian migrant workers, and several dozen are still unaccounted for, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said. One Filipina domestic helper was also killed and 12 others remain unaccounted for, according to the Philippines Consulate General in Hong Kong.

On Sunday afternoon, several hundred Filipinos packed a pedestrian street in central Hong Kong, saying prayers and singing hymns in tribute to the fire victims.

In Beijing, the Ministry of Emergency Management announced a nationwide inspection of high-rise buildings to identify and remove fire hazards.

“Bamboo scaffolding, non-flame-retardant safety nets... and firefighting facilities and equipment such as fire hydrant systems, automatic sprinkler systems and automatic fire alarm systems, will be among the main items to be inspected,” the ministry said.

AP video journalist Ayaka McGill contributed to this report.

People line up to offer flowers and prayers for the victims near the site of a deadly Wednesday fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

People offer flowers and pray for the victims near the site of a deadly Wednesday fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Police remove what appears to be a body bag from the site of a deadly Wednesday fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Emergency crew move what appears to be a body bag on a stretcher from the site of a deadly Wednesday fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Police remove what appears to be a body bag from the site of a deadly Wednesday fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

People holds flower near the site to mourn the victims of the deadly Wednesday fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A woman prays after placing flowers near the site of the deadly Wednesday fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A woman lays flowers near the site of the deadly Wednesday fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — New DNA testing has definitively linked the unsolved death of a Utah teenager in 1974 to the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, the local sheriff’s office said Wednesday.

Laura Ann Aime, 17, went missing Halloween night 51 years ago after she left a party alone to go to a convenience store. About a month later, her body was found on the side of a highway in American Fork Canyon. She was bound, beaten and without clothing. Authorities said she had likely been kept alive for several days after her abduction.

Investigators long suspected that Bundy was responsible — police said he verbally acknowledged his culpability before his execution in Florida in 1989 — but the case remained open until they could be certain.

“It's really quite amazing that people are even still interested in Laura's case,” her sister, Michelle Impala, said at a news conference Wednesday. “Know I speak for my family when I thank you, and thank you media, too, for even caring.”

Bundy was one of the nation’s most prolific serial killers, with at least 30 women and girls’ deaths linked to him in several states in the 1970s. His murders — which occurred in sorority houses, parks and elsewhere — set the nation on edge. Bundy’s arrest drew widespread fascination, in part because many considered him to be charming and handsome.

Investigators had carefully preserved the evidence from Aime’s case, and forensic analysts were able to identify portions that seemed most likely to have usable DNA samples, Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said.

The state crime lab got new technology in 2023 that allows investigators to extract DNA from samples even if they are small, degraded from age or contain DNA from multiple people, he said. That technology allowed them to identify a single male DNA profile, which they submitted to a national law enforcement database.

Bundy’s DNA was a match, Mason said.

That profile can now be used by other law enforcement agencies who have long suspected Bundy of additional unsolved killings, he said, adding that more families could get similar closure.

“Laura Aime is the quintessential daughter of Utah County,” Sgt. Mike Reynolds said. “We felt the pain the family feels when she was taken. We felt the pain that you felt this whole entire time, and we’ve had the desire to deliver to you some type of healing.”

Impala was only 12 when her older sister died. Even with a five-year age gap, she said they were very close and did everything together. They shared a bedroom on the family's farm in Fairview, Utah, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Provo.

“I'm a little kid just following her around, but we had a lot in common," Impala said.

Impala reminisced about about riding horses with her sister and watching Aime feed her horse licorice nibs.

“When she died, he would not eat those anymore,” she said.

It’s not known when Bundy first began his attacks, but by 1974, young women — many of them college students — began disappearing in Washington state. Authorities were still investigating those cases when Bundy moved to Salt Lake City and began killing people in Utah, Idaho and Colorado.

At the time of Aime’s killing, Bundy was studying law at the University of Utah.

In August 1975, he was arrested for the first time in connection with the attacks. Police pulled him over and found incriminating items in his vehicle including rope, handcuffs and a ski mask.

He was found guilty the following year of kidnapping and assaulting a teen in Utah who had managed to get away. Bundy was sentenced to 15 years in prison for that crime, and while imprisoned he was charged in connection with the earlier death of a nursing student.

He was brought to Aspen, Colorado, for a hearing in that case in 1977, and he escaped custody by climbing out a second-story courthouse window when he was left alone for a time. He was caught after about a week, but escaped again six months later by breaking through the ceiling of a jail.

Bundy fled across the country, eventually making his way to Tallahassee, Florida. On Jan. 15, 1977, he entered the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University, bludgeoning two women to death with a large branch and leaving two more badly injured. He then went to another house nearby, badly injuring another woman.

Less than a month later, he abducted, sexually assaulted and killed a 12-year-old girl in Lake City, Florida. Kimberly Leach was believed to be his last victim before he was arrested again and executed years later.

Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.

Brent Bullock, center left, who led investigations at the Utah County Attorney's Office around the time of Laura Ann Aime's murder, shakes hands with Michelle Impala, Aime's younger sister, after a news conference at the Utah County Sheriff's Office in Spanish Fork, Utah, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, announcing definitive evidence linking Ted Bundy to Aime's murder. (Isaac Hale/The Deseret News via AP)

Michelle Impala, right, sister of Laura Ann Aime, speaks, joined by Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith, during a news conference announcing that definitive evidence has linked Ted Bundy to Aime's murder, at the Utah County Sheriff's Office, in Spanish Fork, Utah, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Isaac Hale/The Deseret News via AP)

Utah County Sheriff's Deputy Jake Hall, lead detective on the case, looks to other family members as he hugs Tommi Aime, youngest sister of Laura Ann Aime, after announcing that definitive evidence has linked Ted Bundy to Laura's murder at a news conference at the Utah County Sheriff's Office, in Spanish Fork, Utah, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Isaac Hale/The Deseret News via AP)

FILE - Mourners say goodbye to Kimberly Leach at her funeral, April 13, 1978, in Lake City, Fla. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Accused murderer Ted Bundy attends the second day of jury selection in his murder trial, June 27, 1979, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo,File)

FILE - Accused murderer Ted Bundy leans back in his chair as trial judge Edward Cowart speaks, in Tallahassee, Fla., April 26, 1979. (AP Photo/Mark Foley, File)