Hong Kong police arrest 3 over abduction of woman in busy shopping district with officers linking case to financial dispute
- Police say one of the three suspects arrested had a financial dispute with the victim over HK$100,000
- Officers later found woman, uninjured, in car outside Heng Yuet House at Heng On Estate in Ma On Shan, after she was taken by two men in Tsim Sha Tsui
Hong Kong police have arrested three people in connection with the abduction of a woman in a busy shopping district, with investigators linking the case to a financial dispute over HK$100,000.
Police said on Tuesday that they received a report at noon the previous day that two men wearing black outfits, caps and masks had attacked and shoved a 47-year-old woman into a black vehicle along the junction of Ichang Street and Hankow Road in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Officers later found the woman unharmed at about 6pm on Monday in a grey car outside Heng Yuet House at Heng On Estate in Ma On Shan, about 21km (13 miles) from the scene of the snatching.
Inspector Chan Kwan-to of Yau Tsim district crime squad said the grey car was the second one involved in the case.
He said the three suspects and the jobless victim knew each other, and one of the trio had a financial dispute with the woman involving about HK$100,000.
The suspects were detained for investigation and police did not rule out further arrests, he added.
“Police will not tolerate such an illegal act in broad daylight in a busy district,” he said.
Chan said one of the suspects was a jobless woman, 53, who owned and drove the grey vehicle and rented a flat in a public housing estate in Tsing Yi.
The victim had been detained in the Tsing Yi flat.
At the flat, police arrested a second suspect, a jobless man, 39, one of the two alleged abductors who shoved the victim into the black car. He was arrested for false imprisonment and arson.
At 6am on Monday, or six hours before the incident, the 39-year-old allegedly tried to set a fire with joss sticks and candles outside the victim’s home, but in vain, Chan said.
The black car was found later on Monday in Yau Ma Tei and a jobless man, 34, who had been driving it without a licence and third-party insurance was arrested. The car had a fake licence plate.
The 34-year-old had a financial dispute with the victim, Chan said.
Police said they received several calls about the abduction from witnesses, including a passer-by, a restaurant worker and a taxi driver, before officers rushed to the scene.
In a video clip circulating online taken from a dashcam in a taxi behind the abductors’ car, the woman can be heard yelling for help.
Other than the two abductors, a man showed up next to the car before the pair restrained the woman and shoved her into the vehicle, which then sped off.
In the clip, the man can be seen fleeing the area on foot.
A police spokesman said later on Monday that a shoe, which appeared to be a beige slip-on sneaker, was found at the scene. It is believed to belong to the victim.
