Cops want to grill martial-arts movie star Jackie Chan, after he boasted about using guns and grenades to fend off triad thugs.
Chan’s guns-and-grenades comments, published in a mainland Chinese Southern People Weekly magazine, were largely overlooked last week because of his controversial statements, complaining about political freedom in his native Hong Kong.
The “Shanghai Noon” actor told the magazine harrowing stories of attacks by triads, who want to steal or extort money from him.
“In the past, when they bullied me, I hid in the United States,” Chan said. “They opened fire at me once I got off the plane.From that moment on, I needed to carry a gun every day when I went out.”
Then in another amazing tale, the actor said 20 gang members — armed with machetes — once surrounded him at dinner.
“I pulled out a gun, and had two more concealed,” he said. “I told them they had been going too far and that I had been hiding from them. Later on, I confronted them with two guns and six grenades.”
Chan didn’t elaborate or say when these attacks happened.
Hong Kong police said they plan to interview Chan about his tales of heavily armed combat.
Illegal weapons possession carries a potential 14-year prison term in Hong Kong.
Criminal defense lawyer Albert Luk Wai-hung said Chan’s boastful words would fall well short of evidence that prosecutors would need to win a conviction.
“Even if he says he had guns, or even if somebody saw them, it would not be enough,” the local barrister told The South China Morning Post. “There would have to be proof they were real.”