Hong Kong leader forced to speak on daughter's health

HONG KONG (AFP) - Hong Kong's leader Leung Chun Ying was forced to make an official statement about his daughter's health on Tuesday after she posted a number of alarming messages on her Facebook page.

At a sombre press conference the chief executive said his 23-year-old daughter Leung Chai Yan was suffering from "some health problems" and had been seeing doctors.

It came after an ambulance was seen at the family residence of Government House on Tuesday morning.

Police said they had been called to the address but had found nobody injured.

"Friends and those who know Chai Yan know she has some health problems," Leung told reporters.

"Her emotions fluctuate. Both in the UK (where she studied) and in Hong Kong, we accompanied her to see doctors and she has received good professional care." Leung Chai Yan had posted a string of Facebook messages on Friday morning making allegations that her mother had been violent towards her, calling her a "deranged woman".

She then said she would have "jumped" if she had been on the 20th floor of a building.

Another post was entitled "Leaving Home Forever" with a picture of a heart split in two.

Leung Chai Yan, who was educated in England and studied law at the London School of Economics, has raised eyebrows before with her social media posts but this was the first time that her father was forced to address her comments.

"Although as parents we can take care of her closely... as a daughter in her twenties of a key public officer, she faces quite big pressure in her day-to-day life," Leung added.

"We will give her whatever medical assistance she needs." Leung Chai Yan looked dazed and unsteady at a star-studded red-carpet event in Hong Kong on Saturday, where she posted a picture of herself with American heiress Paris Hilton.

Earlier this year she told local HK Magazine that she had a troubled relationship with her parents and had suffered from depression.

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