Hong Kong police have arrested one suspect after four armed men robbed the staff of a currency exchange shop of 1 billion yen (US$6.4 million).
The force said it received a report at 9.06am on Thursday from a staff member who, together with a colleague, was robbed of yen worth nearly HK$50 million at 181 Queen’s Road Central near Grand Millennium Plaza in Sheung Wan.
The four knife-wielding robbers fled in a westward direction along Queen’s Road Central after the theft.
Police later found a car believed to be linked to the robbery at 123 Jervois Street in the same neighbourhood.
A man was arrested on suspicion of robbery and taken in for questioning.
The two staff members were a man holding a two-way exit permit for mainland Chinese and a driver with a Hong Kong identity card. Neither was injured in the robbery.
The sheer volume and weight of the currency stolen, in addition to the swiftness of the robbery, triggered a heated online discussion.
The highest-denomination Japanese banknote is 10,000 yen. If the robbers only stole those notes, it would amount to 100,000 banknotes.
The Bank of Japan also puts the weight of each note at one gram and the thickness at 0.1mm, meaning the stolen money would weigh 100kg (220lbs) if the robbers only stole 10,000 yen notes and they would likely need several suitcases to carry them all.
On September 18, police arrested 13 people in connection with another daring robbery the day before. The gang targeted a gold workshop in Hung Hom and made off with HK$59 million worth of the precious metal.
Police said 17 men stormed the premises at around 5am, taking an estimated 65kg of gold, including bars, bricks and powder, and HK$20,000 in cash.
Authorities managed to recover all of the stolen gold.
