国内英语新闻:Hong Kong brings home bodies of hostage victims, official demands thorough probe by Philippin

HONG KONG, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- A chartered plane, carrying the bodies of the eight victims, victims' relatives and survivors in the hostage crisis in Philippine capital Manila, arrived at the Hong Kong International Airport on Wednesday evening.

Following the arrival, an around-90-minute condolence ceremony was held at the airport, with a senior Hong Kong official and the victims' relatives laying wreaths on the coffins.

In a speech after the ceremony, Chief Secretary for Administration of the Hong Kong government Henry Tang urged the Philippine government to provide a detailed account of the causes of death and injury.

COMING HOME

The chartered plane of Cathay Pacific flight number CX 2903, which carried the coffins bearing the bodies of the victims, victims' relatives, several survivors and their kins, arrived in Hong Kong at 7:50 p.m. local time (1150 GMT).

The chartered flight took off around 6:19 p.m. local time in Manila after a brief farewell ceremony.

The eight slain Hong Kongers and the survivors were among the 21 Hong Kong tourists who were caught in a 11-hour hostage crisis in Manila on Monday. It ended on Monday night with eight hostages killed and seven others injured, one of whom still in critical condition.

Upon arrival, Henry Tang, along with President of Hong Kong's Legislative Council Jasper Tsang, Governor of the Non-official Members of Hong Kong's Executive Council Leung Chun-ying, Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lu Xinhua, and deputy director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong Li Gang, stepped onto the plane to receive them home.

After that, a solemn and heart-stricken ceremony was staged at the airport, which was live broadcast by the city's main TV stations.

Pulled by trailers, coffins of the eight dead Hong Kongers, batch by batch separated by family, passed and stopped before a crowd of officials and families amid mournful music.

Tang and tearful family members of the eight victims laid wreaths on the coffins of the eight victims, before the bodies were sent to Kwai Chung Public Mortuary.

Some of the injured were sent to local hospitals, where Hong Kong's Chief Executive Donald Tsang later visited them.