Hong Kong police have launched a citywide manhunt for a middle-aged man who robbed a mainland Chinese woman of HK$15,000 (US$2,000) at knifepoint in her hotel room in the New Territories.
Officers arrived at the hotel on Tin Yan Road in Tin Shui Wai soon after 1.30am on Monday after receiving a report of the robbery from the 30-year-old holder of a two-way permit, a travel document that allows mainlanders to visit the city.
A source familiar with the case said a 1.8m tall man wearing a face mask and glasses entered the woman’s hotel room at around 12.42am.
The insider said surveillance camera footage showed the man, believed to be aged between 40 and 50, left the room at around 1.23am.
“The victim told officers that the man threatened her with a fruit knife and demanded money from her,” he said.
According to the force, the mainland woman was robbed of HK$15,000 in cash and was not injured during the hold-up.
Officers launched a search, but no arrests were made.
The source said a preliminary investigation suggested the woman was a suspected sex worker and the robber could be her client who had an appointment with her.
Detectives from the Yuen Long criminal investigation unit are handling the case.
Last month, officers from the Kowloon East regional crime unit broke up a cross-border syndicate that raked in HK$30 million in less than a year by bringing sex workers from across the border to work in hotels, including a five-star one in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Police arrested 39 people in the operation against the triad-controlled prostitution racket on August 8. Twenty-five of them were suspected sex workers from the mainland who were picked up at three hotels.
The city recorded a 5.2 per cent rise in the number of triad-related crimes to 959 in the first six months of this year from 912 in the same period in 2023.
