Woman abducted in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district found unhurt after citywide police search
- Woman bundled into car by two men in Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district; later found unhurt in the vehicle
- Officers comb area after alarm raised, finding shoe believed to have been worn by woman
“The woman shouted for help, alerting passers-by and other witnesses when she was forcefully pushed into a private car by two men,” a police spokesman said.
Officers raced to the scene after police received several calls from witnesses, including passers-by, a restaurant worker and a taxi driver.
The woman was later found uninjured in the car about 21km (13 miles) away, outside Heng Yuet House at Heng On Estate in Ma On Shan. No arrests have been made.
The police spokesman earlier said officers found a shoe believed to have been left behind by the victim at the scene. The shoe appeared to be a beige slip-on sneaker.
The incident happened at the junction of Ichang Street and Hankow Road just after midday.
The spokesman said investigations suggested the car travelled along Hankow Road and onto Haiphong Road before it turned onto Nathan Road and headed towards Mong Kok.
The spokesman said officers were treating the case as an “unlawful detention”.
In video footage, apparently from the dashcam of a taxi travelling behind the abductors’ car, the woman can be heard yelling for help.
Apart from the two abductors, a man appears next to the car before the pair restrain the woman and put her in the vehicle, which speeds off.
The other man is seen to leave the area on foot.
Detectives from the Yau Tsim district crime squad are handling the case.
The man managed to open the door of a white Toyota Alphard people carrier and jump out after it stopped in the area’s Nathan Road near its junction with Pitt Street, but his captors caught up with him.
The car was blocked by other vehicles, which forced it to veer left and hit a Citybus double-decker that had pulled over at a bus stop on Nathan Road.
An online video showed the Alphard mounting the pavement and travelling a short distance before it got back onto Nathan Road, where it ran a red light and sped off in the direction of Mong Kok.
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The suspected Sun Yee On triad member was ordered by his captors to strip so they could take nude photographs of him before he was released.
He was later found by police in Mong Kok.
Police handled 10,122 reports of violent crimes last year, up 14.6 per cent on the 8,830 cases logged in 2022.
Three years ago, police rescued a domestic helper and a 19-month-old girl after they were bundled into a car near Cyberport in Pok Fu Lam and locked in a shipping container in Pat Heung.
The toddler’s father was reportedly a Japanese businessman who ran a sushi restaurant in Hong Kong. Two men were later arrested in connection with the case.
A cryptocurrency trader was kidnapped in Kowloon Bay and held for a HK$30 million (US$3.8 million) ransom in a separate incident during November of that same year.
The victim was beaten and held in a village house in Tai Po for nearly a week. He later managed to escape and was rescued by police.
Hong Kong and mainland Chinese police arrested more than 20 people in connection with the case, with several of them charged with kidnapping or conspiracy to kidnap.
Additional reporting by Danny Mok
