STEAL-to-order car theft gangs are back at work - with more than 30 vehicles disappearing last week alone - despite a successful police clampdown earlier this year. Police and insurance officials believe an 'order' has been placed in China for up to 1,000 'secondary luxury vehicles' - such as Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys - to fill a vacuum caused by mainland restrictions on other cars. Previously, the demand was for top-of-the-range Mercedes, BMWs, Lexus and Toyotas, but the scale of the losses was reduced to a few per month following an anti-theft drive by police on both sides of the border. In the latest incident, an officer fired a shot yesterday morning when two suspected 'professional' thieves tried to drive away in a stolen vehicle while dragging a policeman, who had grabbed one of the men, through a car park. Emergency Unit officers from Kowloon West later arrested four men and two women, including two watchmen, and recovered three stolen vehicles and a motorbike from the private car park in a property on Fessenden Road. According to an officer involved in the operation, the police moved in at 4 am after watching a number of cars being driven into a building and left in a secluded area. 'One of the officers grabbed one of the two men's legs as they drove off and he was dragged along the ground within the car park, which was when his colleague fired a shot.' He said no one was injured. Detectives believe the car park was being used to keep the vehicles before smuggling them in bulk across the border. The case was later taken over by the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau (OCTB). Detectives were yesterday afternoon still trying to locate other stolen cars and find out how many vehicles had been taken by the gang. Police believe up to four syndicates are operating in the territory, specialising in small fleets of vehicles left in car parks. David Cosgrove, deputy chief executive of Carlingford Insurance, said there had been a 'sudden upsurge' in thefts. 'Rumour has it that an order has been placed for 1,000 cars,' Mr Cosgrove said. 'My information is that they are going across the border and that executives have been given a limit as to what they can drive. 'They want the top, middle executive range of Japanese cars. Even with the Honda Accord it comes down to a particular model. They want the 2,500 cc, four-door, executive saloon.' Head of OCTB's A Division, Chief Inspector Dave Grant, in charge of investigating car thefts, said the thefts started three weeks ago but the surge was not dramatic. 'It is a concern,' he said. 'Any new trend is a concern. The theft of Mercedes and BMWs has dropped off but that of Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys has gone up.' Chief Inspector Grant said the gangs were committing 'mass theft' by identifying groups of cars and stealing up to six at a time. In a related incident on September 24, Anti Smuggling Task Force officers stopped a gang loading two stolen Accords into two boats in Repulse Bay. Both vehicles were recovered but the tai feis, or speedboats, escaped. An incident last Wednesday in which a Royal Navy sailor was temporarily abducted by smugglers when he jumped into a tai fei in an attempt to stop the boat, has also been linked to the resurgence in thefts. Leading Weapons Engineer Neil Moore, 23, was thrown from the boat after being attacked by two smugglers. He swam 1.5 kilometres to Sha Chau, an uninhabited island north of Lantau.