A 14-metre-tall Chinese banyan listed as one of Hong Kong’s “old and valuable trees” since 2004 toppled near the Mong Kok East railway station on Tuesday, breaking a lamp post in the process.

The accident, which followed the collapse of a branch that killed a villager in Tai Po last week, was “the exemplar” representing authorities’ years-long tree mismanagement problem, according to an expert.

The tree in the latest accident had a crown spread of 25 metres. It collapsed onto the Luen Wan Street pavement in Mong Kok soon after 9am, according to police. The site is just a stone’s throw away from a sitting-out area.

A police spokeswoman said the tree hit and broke a lamp post, but no pedestrians were hit. She said the section of the road was closed to traffic and firefighters were called in to remove the tree.

The tree has been listed on the Register of Old and Valuable Trees since September 2004.

The Leisure and Cultural Services Department, which was in charge of maintaining the tree, said it was last inspected on October 15 this year and was in generally good condition at the time.

The department said that because the whole tree had collapsed, it had to be removed to guarantee the safety of the public.

Staff also checked three nearby banyan trees, but no abnormal growth was found, the department said on Tuesday night.

According to the government’s Old and Valuable Trees register, the Chinese banyan was registered in September 2004. The tree size was listed as its special characteristic.

Authorities established the Register of Old and Valuable Trees to ensure that the trees can be well preserved and maintained.

Since 2004, the register has recorded nearly 500 trees on unleased government land within built-up areas and tourist attraction spots in village areas. They are categorised in groups such as trees of large size, trees of precious or rare species, trees of particularly old age, and trees of cultural, historical or memorable significance.

Tree expert Jim Chi-yung, a professor of geography and environmental science at the Education University, said the recipe for tree accidents to take place was ubiquitous in the city’s urban areas.

Tuesday’s incident was “the exemplar” representing authorities’ years-long mismanagement problem in Hong Kong, he said, as the set-up of planters was inimical to the trees’ survival. “The planter used was abysmally tiny for such a giant tree to grow,” he said.

In a separate incident on October 28, a tree branch snapped and killed a 64-year-old man at Ng Tung Chai village in Tai Po. It happened while residents were carrying out tree trimming work.

The Lands Department said it had asked a contractor to carry out on-site inspections after receiving complaints about the tree on August 19 and October 7 and 11. In September and October, the department also requested the contractor to submit the results of on-site inspections. The contractor did not submit an inspection report about the tree until after Friday’s incident.

“The department is very dissatisfied with the contractor’s performance and will impose severe punishment according to the contract terms and mechanism,” its spokesman said last week.

The day after the accident, department workers and the contractor went to the village to assess the trees, sawed away the ones deemed a safety risk and checked the trunks of others. The department said it inspected 60 trees, pruned six and removed eight others. It added that it aimed to finish working on the remaining trees in Ng Tung Chai within two weeks.

There were also two high-profile cases of falling trees injuring the public in the past two months.

On October 17, a tree collapsed when Typhoon Nesat passed by the city, injuring seven people when it hit a bus travelling on a section of Peak Road. They were sent to Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam for treatment.

A poinciana tree, which stood 10 metres tall, landed on a school bus and three cars on September 16 in Ho Man Tin, injuring two people. Authorities subsequently ordered an inspection of all such roadside trees, with 59 later marked for removal and 130 ordered to be trimmed.

Jim argued that although the government had regarded the tree in Mong Kok as valuable, it had done the opposite to optimise its growth.

“This is the worst-case scenario that could happen to trees in Hong Kong,” he said. “It should have been prevented, but the government has been producing weak trees. Such incidents will never cease.”