Bare-faced robbery: thieves steal 6,000 hygiene masks in Japan

A customer buying face masks from a drugstore in Tokyo's Akihabara area. Four boxes containing the face masks disappeared from a locked storage facility at the Japanese Red Cross hospital in the western port city of Kobe, a hospital official said on Feb 18. — AFP

TOKYO: Thieves in Japan have made off with some 6,000 surgical masks from a hospital, with the country facing a mass shortage and a huge price hike online due to the coronavirus.

Four boxes containing the face masks disappeared from a locked storage facility at the Japanese Red Cross hospital in the western port city of Kobe, a hospital official said on Feb 18.