Off-duty Hong Kong firefighter turns himself in over viral shopping centre row

An off-duty firefighter has been arrested in Hong Kong after surrendering to police over alleged common assault, the South China Morning Post has learned, following a viral video showing him shoving and shouting at a young couple in a Mong Kok shopping centre.A source familiar with the matter told the SCMP on Monday that the 48-year-old man, who said he works as a firefighter, turned himself in at Mong Kok police station on Sunday, accompanied by his wife.“The arrestee admitted that he had acted that way as he suspected the man in the couple had intentionally rammed into him,” the source said.The arrest followed online backlash after a 24-second-long video, posted on Instagram on Saturday, showed an altercation between a middle-aged couple and a younger couple at Sim City shopping centre in Mong Kok. In the video, the older couple accuse the younger pair of bumping into them at a crowded escalator entrance.The video begins with the middle-aged woman saying she did not squeeze herself into the younger couple. The middle-aged man, dressed in a striped green T-shirt and wearing a green cap, then shouted at the young couple at close range, accusing them of bumping into him and his partner.The viral video triggered backlash online against the 48-year-old suspect. Photo: HandoutThe young woman screamed in fear as the middle-aged man pressed on with his accusation, pointing at the young man and later shoving him.