28th October 2026 – (Hong Kong) More than a dozen rats were filmed scurrying along a back alley beside a chain restaurant at MIDTOWN SOUTH on Whampoa Street in Hung Hom — separated from diners by a single pane of glass — as Hong Kong’s rodent problem again drew public alarm and a joint inspection by officials and the local councillor.
Footage shared online on Monday showed the animals clustering on the alley floor, some near drains and others among clutter, while the restaurant glowed with evening trade and customers ate inside. Several diners sat with their backs to the alley and appeared not to notice the scene outside. A second clip, shot from within the eatery, captured a diner who said they had spotted rats while eating and feared the animals might come indoors.
The alley abuts a construction site behind hoarding. A trolley holding two blue plastic buckets stood in the lane; whether the containers held food scraps, and what drew the rats, remained unclear. A reporter who visited the Baker Circle site in the small hours of Wednesday found no rodents on the move but saw several traps laid out — none of them holding a catch at that time.
District Councillor Lam Tak-shing joined the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, mall management and property managers for an on-site check on Tuesday afternoon. He said residents and neighbours had reported live rats in the side lane of a long-running Hung Hom eatery that serves large numbers of locals, office workers and takeaway customers each day. A rodent infestation beside such a busy kitchen, he warned, posed a serious worry for public health, food safety and the district’s hygiene image.
Lam pressed the mall operator to step up patrols of corridors, back alleys, refuse rooms and drains, schedule regular rodent control and tighten refuse storage. He told management those common areas were rodent hotspots that needed clear ownership on the floor, not only paper plans.
He also urged the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department to mount a full hygiene blitz across every food premises in the Baker Circle mall and to clear black spots that have left diners and rats dining almost side by side. Until traps, refuse rules and alley checks catch up with the viral clips, Hung Hom’s evening trade remains one pane of glass away from a rodent dinner of its own.
