HK exchange student shot dead on overnight stay in Moscow
The 26-year-old woman was robbed and murdered after a delayed flight forced her to spend a night in the Russian capital
A 26-year-old Hong Kong woman has been found shot dead in Moscow, where she had been on an overnight visit before returning home from a cultural exchange programme in Estonia.
Luk Pui-man, a media graduate from City University, had been missing since June 23. She was last seen at Moscow airport, where she had arrived for a short stop-over, the China News Service reported yesterday. Her body was found by a Russian woman in suburban Moscow last Thursday. There were bullet wounds to her head and stomach.
Luk's belongings, including her mobile phone, a digital camera, credit cards and wallet, were all missing. Russian police believed she was killed on June 24.
The Chinese Embassy in Moscow was informed and subsequently confirmed Luk's identity. Her family has flown to Moscow, the report said.
Luk was invited by Estonian authorities for a three-month cultural exchange. When the programme ended on June 23, she reportedly flew to Moscow that day to catch a flight back to Hong Kong. But on arrival in Moscow she found the second flight had been delayed for a day.
The woman checked in at Moscow airport and called her parents, telling them that she would be back on June 25.
When she did not show up at the airport for her flight, her mother called Hong Kong police for help, a police spokeswoman said. Officers checked immigration records and found that she did not board the plane from Moscow to Hong Kong. They then transferred the case to the Chinese Embassy in Russia.
A spokeswoman for the Security Bureau yesterday said the embassy later informed them of Luk's death. They then immediately contacted her family.
'We will provide assistance to the family and will follow up the case,' she said.
Luk is survived by her parents and a younger brother.
