South Korean ‘murders’ wife and child at luxury hotel Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong, arrested

The woman and a young boy were found dead at the scene while the man was arrested on suspicion of murder and taken to hospital.

A South Korean has been arrested for the suspected murder of his wife and child on Sunday at the luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel on Hong Kong’s harbourfront, officials said.

A general view shows signage for the Ritz-Carlton hotel located in the International Commerce Centre (C) where a mother and a boy were found murdered in Hong Kong. (AFP Photo)

Police rushed to the hotel after receiving a report on Sunday morning that a man and a woman were fighting.

The woman and a young boy were found dead at the scene while the man was arrested on suspicion of murder and taken to hospital, police said.

Police did not confirm the relationship between the three but told AFP they were all foreign nationals.

A spokesperson from the South Korean consulate in Hong Kong confirmed the three were nationals and from the same family.

According to local news site Apple Daily, the couple, in their 40s, and their seven-year-old son checked into the five-star hotel a few days before.

This handout from Apple Daily shows a murder suspect accused of killing women and boy at the Ritz-Carlton, arriving on a gurney at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital under police escort in Hong Kong.

A source with knowledge of the investigation told AFP that a friend of the suspect had warned authorities in South Korea he was potentially suicidal shortly before the incident.

“Our thoughts are with the family of the guests involved at this very difficult time,” a hotel spokesperson in Hong Kong told AFP, declining to comment further as an investigation was ongoing.

In a separate incident, Hong Kong police are investigating the murder-suicide of a couple found dead at a public housing estate near the border with mainland China, local media reported.