Robbers bound and gagged a security guard in a locked container and might have poisoned seven dogs before escaping with HK$200,000 worth of electrical cables from a godown in Ta Kwu Ling early yesterday.
Three or four men attacked the guard when he left the container, used as an office at the open-air site in Ping Yuen Road, to go to the toilet shortly after midnight.
He was pushed back into the container, where he was threatened, tied up, blindfolded and gagged, police said.
Two dogs which guarded the godown were found dead inside, and another five dogs were lying dead outside.
Site workers believed they were local dogs which were poisoned when they heard the commotion and ran up.
Another three guard dogs that were chained up and unable to attack the robbers survived.