Fight outside Wan Chai karaoke bar results in third police weapon being grabbed this year

An off-duty detective was beaten up and had his loaded revolver snatched after a fight outside a Wan Chai karaoke bar over a man smoking a marijuana cigarette early yesterday morning.

An investigation has been launched to find out if the officer who was assaulted and a colleague he called for help - who was also off-duty and armed with a .38 Smith and Wesson - had been drinking alcohol before the incident. The officers were allowed to carry their force-issue revolvers while off-duty, but any officer drinking while armed is in breach of regulations except where special permission has been granted by senior police.

The snatching incident is the third of its kind so far this year, raising fears over the security of police weapons.

The detective constable, 31, from the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau, needed hospital treatment after the fight in a lift outside the M-Power karaoke bar in Lockhart Road at 2am when he tried to stop a man smoking pot.

Detective Senior Inspector S. K. Lau, of the Wan Chai District Anti-Triad Squad, said the fight - which eventually involved the officer, his wife, two men and two women - then spilled out into the street.

'He finished work at 10pm, went for a meal and then went to the karaoke bar to meet his wife. His wife had been drinking,' said Senior Inspector Lau, who is leading the probe into the incident.

'In the lift, he tried to stop a man who was smoking cannabis and was attacked by three people, the fight then carried on into the street and the officer's gun was snatched before they ran off.