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SCMP Reporter

AN innocent woman pedestrian was shot dead and a policeman wounded in Nathan Road by a gang of robbers using AK-47 rifles yesterday, renewing calls for the implementation of the death penalty.

  One of the three men involved in the second violentjewellery shop raid in two days was shot dead by police during a chase along some of West Kowloon's busiest roads.

  The gang fired more than 30 shots mostly from the AK-47s, with officers returning 17 shots during several encounters that saw chaos from Mongkok to Hunghom as bystanders dived for cover and motorists abandoned their vehicles amid the hail of bullets.

  The dead man, shot twice in the back and twice in the legs, was left behind in a hijacked private car when his accomplices grabbed another car and disappeared.

  They also abandoned two China-made AK-47 rifles, known as Model 56 on the mainland, and a Russian-made 9 mm Makarov pistol.

  Detectives studying previous raids involving AK-47s last night did not rule out the possibility that the raid was masterminded by Yip Kai-foon - Hongkong's most wanted criminal.

  Yip is believed to have recruited gangs who pulled off at least two major robberies between June 1991 and last March.

  More than 100 rounds of AK-47, and six rounds of Makarov, ammunition were found in a string of getaway cars.

  There was no sign of the 1,000 taels of gold ornaments (worth about $3.3 million) snatched from the Tse Sui Luen Company in Nathan Road.

  Detectives are comparing the raid with Tuesday's robbery at the Chow Tai Fook gold shop in Causeway Bay where a gang with pistols and a grenade got away with $6 million worth of jewellery.

 Mongkok police district commander, Chief Superintendent Chris Glover, described the men involved in yesterday's holdup as ''cold-blooded and ruthless'', spraying a burst of shots from the AK-47s indiscriminately in one of the territory's busiest tourist shopping areas.

  An amateur video broadcast on television showed one of the men coolly brandishing his AK-47 as he stood guard outside the shop and ushering his accomplices into a taxi.

  Leather goods shop owner, Mr Tang Siu-keung, 42, said the gunman kept looking towards Dundas Street, apparently expecting police from that direction, but occasionally glanced behind him.

  ''I called police immediately after hearing a burst of shots believed to have been fired towards Dundas Street's junction with Nathan Road,'' he said.

  ''When I looked up, I saw a woman lying in a pool of blood with serious head injuries at the road junction.''   Miss Fung Wai-lin, 38, was certified dead at Kwong Wah Hospital at 2.34 pm.

  Her taxi driver husband, Mr Law Chung-wai, 40, said at the hospital his wife was a nurse at the Tung Wah Group of Hospital's Pao Sui Loong Convalescent Home in Tai Po. He said they had been married for four years and had no children.

 Police Tactical Unit Constable Lee Kin-ming, 28, was shot in the left leg as he lay on the footpath on the opposite side of the road junction.

  He was in fair condition last night.

  A jewellery shop employee, Miss Kwok Kwai-ying, 36, suffered shock during the incident and was treated and discharged from Kwong Wah Hospital.

  Police Commissioner Mr Li Kwan-ha visited Mr Lee later in the afternoon but would not comment on the incident.

  The Governor, Mr Chris Patten, condemned the violence and vowed that the police would fight crime with every means in their power.

  Some police urged legislators to bring back the death penalty for such violent crimes.

  The three men had hailed a taxi in Portland Street at about noon and told the driver to circle round the area twice.

  One of the men suddenly threatened the driver with a pistol and told him to go to the Tse Sui Luen Jewellery Company at 580 Nathan Road.

  The driver was ordered to park outside the shop and wait. He was told he would be shot if he tried to escape.

 The three put on balaclavas and got out, leaving the front door of the taxi open.

  One man with an AK-47 took his position on the footpath as the other two went into the shop at 12.20 pm.

  One of them fired a warning shot at the ceiling as they entered the shop and the other threatened staff members and about 20 customers.

  The gunman in the street fired about eight shots intermittently from his AK-47.

  As the gang came out of the shop and moved back to the taxi, five more shots were fired, hitting Ms Fung and Mr Lee.

  A detective sergeant managed to fire only once because of the pedestrians in the busy street and other officers were not close enough to attempt to fire safely.

  The second man with an AK-47 dragged a woman employee out of the shop with him, but freed her as the gang jumped into the taxi.

  They dropped a tennis racquet bag containing 20 live AK-47 rounds in the gutter.

  The robbers fired shots along Nathan Road near Dundas and Pitt streets before their taxi turned into Waterloo Road, chased by a police emergency unit car.

  Another emergency unit car in Shek Kip Mei raced to Kowloon Tong. Officers wearing bullet-proof vests and with service revolvers drawn blocked Waterloo Road near Essex Crescent.

  The fleeing taxi was stuck in a traffic jam after coming down the Princess Margaret Road flyover from Pui Ching Road.

  The taxi bumped into an RTHK vehicle after it was hit by a lorry from behind.

  The trio jumped out of the taxi and were immediately met by police manning the road block.

  The gang fired more than 20 shots with police returning 16, including six shots from Remington shotguns.

  Eight vehicles that either skidded to a stop or were abandoned by their drivers as the shots rang out were hit.

  Only one robber, aged between 20 and 30, was hit.

  The thieves carried the man to a Toyota Crown stopped by the incident and forced the driver to make a U-turn towards the Kowloon entrance of the Cross Harbour Tunnel.

 The hijacked car was seen travelling along Fat Kwong Street in Ho Man Tin and arrived at Ma Tau Wai Road in Hunghom, where the two robbers abandoned the car, leaving behind their shot accomplice.

  They hijacked another taxi and headed towards Chun Seen Mei Chuen in Ma Tau Wai, where they jumped out and disappeared.

  The taxi driver discovered the second AK-47 rifle in his car after the two men had gone. He drove to Kowloon City police station to alert officers.



AK-47 gang kills woman in Nathan Road raid