Hong Kong holds funeral with full honors for marine officer

Hong Kong people – including top government officials and disciplined service chiefs – pay their final salute on Tuesday morning to a female marine officer who died in an anti-smuggling operation in September. 

Police chief inspector Lam Yuen-yee, 37, will be laid to rest in the Gallant Garden at Wo Hop Shek Cemetery, in which civil servants who lost their lives in the line of duty are buried. 

Dressed in dark attire, major officials including Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung and Commissioner of Police Siu Chak-yee, gathered at the Universal Funeral Parlour in Hung Hom to attend the full-honor traditional ceremony and a police force ceremony. 

Dozens of members of the public also gathered nearby the entrance of the mortuary to pay their final respect. 

Hundreds of wreaths were placed at the funeral parlor including wreaths from police departments, other disciplined services, and government departments. 

The cortège will leave after the force ceremony and proceed to the Small Boat Division, Government Dockyard and Stonecutters Island for vigils. They will then go to Gallant Garden in Wo Hop Shek, where the burial service will be held at 12.15pm. 

The 37-year-old chief inspector was in an anti-smuggling operation on September 25 in Sha Chau where the Hong Kong marine police vessel was chasing a speedboat suspected of smuggling tonnes of frozen meat. 

The speedboat suddenly made a 90-degree turn and rammed Lam's police boat, causing Lam and her three colleagues to fall into the sea. 

Lam's body was found near the shore at Yi O on Lantau Island two days later. Her three colleagues were rescued. 

Last month, mainland police and Guangdong coast guard arrested two suspects believed to have been in the speedboat. 

Lam joined the police force in 2007 and had 14 years of police work experience. She had cracked major smuggling cases over the years, including one involving HK$37 million worth of animals and goods last August.
 

+2