Hong Kong police have launched a manhunt for at least four men who abducted a cryptocurrency investor and attacked her husband with a stun gun after intercepting their car in a rural village.
The woman, 55, was freed about an hour after she was bundled into the seven-seater car at Tai Lau Leng Village off Po Shek Wu Road in Sheung Shui at around 8.45pm on Tuesday, according to the force.
A source familiar with the case said on Wednesday that preliminary investigations suggested a financial dispute over a HK$15 million (US$1.9 million) investment in virtual currency the victim was involved in was behind the city’s second abduction in 32 hours.
The woman works as a cryptocurrency investor and her husband, 43, owns an IT firm, the Post has learned.
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Another source said that after the couple’s car was intercepted, four men jumped out from the vehicle and dragged the woman out. Her husband was attacked with a stun gun after he attempted to intervene.
He added the woman was then shoved into the captors’ vehicle which sped off before police were called in.
Officers were sent to the scene after receiving a report from her husband.
About an hour later, the woman was released in Ta Kwu Ling, about 7km (4.3 miles) away from the crime scene, the source revealed.
According to the force, the woman went to Tai Kwu Ling Police Station to seek help at around 9.45pm.
Police said investigations showed that the victim did not know the four captors, thought to be aged between 30 and 50.
The woman suffered minor arm and leg injuries, while her husband had head, neck and limb wounds. They were sent to North District Hospital for treatment.
Police are treating the case as unlawful detention and assault.
Detectives from the Tai Po district crime squad are investigating the case. So far, no arrests have been made.
On Monday, police rescued a 47-year-old woman in Ma On Shan about six hours after she was bundled into a car by two men in the city’s bustling Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district at around midday.
Police arrested two men aged 34 and 39, and a woman, 53, in connection with the case within 12 hours after the abduction.
Inspector Chan Kwan-to of the Yau Tsim district crime squad said on Tuesday that the case was linked to a financial dispute between the victim and the 34-year-old man involving HK$100,000.
He said the abduction occurred about six hours before the 39-year-old suspect allegedly tried to use joss sticks and candles to burn the wooden door of the victim’s home, but in vain.
Police handled 10,122 reports of violent crimes last year, up by 14.6 per cent on the 8,830 cases logged in 2022.
Read More: Manhunt under way after 4 men abduct Hong Kong cryptocurrency investor, attack husband
