Police have charged a 24-year-old Nepalese man over Friday’s US$786,000 armed robbery in Hung Hom, but are still searching for two other suspects and have not recovered any of the stolen money.
Limbu Binod, an asylum seeker who has been staying in Hong Kong for four years, was arrested in an apartment on Battery Street in Kowloon’s Yau Ma Tei on Friday night, Oriental Daily reported.
Officers did not recover any of the stolen property and found only a trace amount of suspected cannabis buds on the man. He appeared in Kowloon City Magistrates’ Court Monday charged with one count of robbery and one count of possession of dangerous drugs.
Three men snatched backpacks containing US$740,000 and HK$360,000 (US$46,000) in cash from two staff members of a jewelry store near the junction of Hok Yuen Street and Hung Hom Road on Friday morning. The employees were slashed on the legs.
Video footage showed some of the robbers fleeing along Hok Yuen Street East and jumping into a getaway car driven by a fourth man. The stolen vehicle was found abandoned Friday on Hoi Ting Road in Mong Kok, along with two bloodstained knives, hats and face marks.
It is understood that the Nepalese man acted as a watchman during the robbery and was not armed. He failed to reach the getaway car in time and fled in a taxi instead, Sing Pao reported.
The police said they expected to make further arrests, but gave no details. They believe the three suspects still at large are also of South Asian descent.
Read: HK police hunt four men after daylight armed robbery in Kowloon