Detectives investigating Thursday's hammer-killing of an elderly man in a Chai Wan public housing estate suspect the culprit might be a mental patient.
Officers are understood to have checked the hospital records of mental patients in an attempt to identify the murderer, who is also suspected of two other attacks on the same Tsui Wan Estate.
'The motive behind the three attacks remains unknown. We do not rule out the possibility that the killer is a mental patient or a person with a history of mental illness,' a police source said.
'We are investigating all clues and trying to track him down through different channels.'
A representative from the management committee of the estate's owners' corporation said yesterday its office received an anonymous call on Thursday claiming the killer lived on the estate.
Police were alerted to the tip-off.