Taipei, Aug. 20 (CNA) A fire broke out early Friday morning at a Taipei restaurant that offers work opportunities to young Hong Kongers who have fled to Taiwan to avoid a crackdown on protesters, but fortunately no injuries were reported, according to the city’s fire department.

Some 41 firefighters and over a dozen fire engines were dispatched to battle the blaze that occurred at around 4 a.m. at Aegis, which is the name of the restaurant located in an alley on Xinsheng South Road.

The fire was extinguished at 4:12 a.m., the department said.

Based on a preliminary investigation, police said footage retrieved from roadside security cameras did not reveal any suspicious activity around the restaurant before the fire broke out.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

The restaurant’s operator posted on its Facebook page on Friday that the fire caused extensive damage.

“Machines, goods, furniture and food ingredients were all destroyed in the fire, with heavy losses,” it said, noting that its business will be temporarily suspended until further notice.

The Aegis was opened in April last year by Daniel Wong Kwok-tung (???), a Hong Kong lawyer and politician who provided free legal services to demonstrators arrested during the 2019 Hong Kong protests.

The initially peaceful protests, which later turned destructive and violent, were triggered by a proposal to adopt an extradition bill, which would have allowed crime suspects arrested in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan to be sent to China for trial. The bill was later withdrawn by the Hong Kong government.

China’s government, however, later imposed a national security law on the former British colony which returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, arguing it was necessary to restore public order.

That further fueled fears of an erosion of freedoms Hong Kong people had enjoyed for years under the One Country Two Systems policy, and led to more people leaving the territory to settle in places like Taiwan.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel