Hiker climbing Hong Kong’s highest peak missing for over 18 hours; mercury falls below freezing as emergency services mount search

The Transport Department announced at around 9am that “due to [an] emergency incident, all vehicles cannot enter Tai Mo Shan Road via Route Twisk”.

According to the Hong Kong Observatory, an intense winter monsoon and a band of clouds covering the coast of Guangdong province have brought the coldest temperatures for the season so far.

Are you a responsible hiker? A visual tour of Hong Kong's five most extreme trails

The mercury dropped to a minimum of 8.6 degrees Celsius (47.5 Fahrenheit) in urban areas on Friday morning, the lowest this winter.

Temperatures on the 957-metre tall Tai Mo Shan hovered around freezing, falling to as low as -1.6 degrees in the early morning – the sixth-lowest on record in the area.

As of 10am, the mercury had reached about 2.5 degrees on the mountain.