Suicide rate in Hong Kong declines from historic highs

Sep 10, 2009, 4:16 GMT

   Hong Kong - Hong Kong, once one of the world's suicide hot spots, has in the past six years seen a steady decline in the number of people taking their own lives, figures released Thursday showed.

   More than 1,200 people in the high-rise city of 7 million killed themselves in 2003, a rate of almost four a day. Last year, that number dropped to just more than 900, according to a study by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention.

   From having one of the highest suicide rates in the world, Hong Kong now has one of the region's lowest with a smaller proportion of suicide cases than Japan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan or China.

   However Hong Kong's suicide rate was still higher than those of Singapore, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand, according to figures released to coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day Thursday.

   A number of measures have proven successful in lowering Hong Kong's suicide rate, including erecting barriers to stop people from jumping from shopping mall balconies and placing warning stickers on bags of charcoal.

   The most common methods of suicide in Hong Kong are jumping from high buildings, hanging and burning charcoal in a sealed room to release its poisonous fumes.