Hong Kong police are searching for at least seven assailants who stormed and vandalised two mahjong parlours in Tsuen Wan in an apparent attempt to collect a debt.
Four thugs broke into a parlour on Yi Pei Square after smashing the glass door with a baseball bat shortly before 12.15am on Monday, according to police.
“Initial investigation showed perpetrators demanded staff repay a debt. When their demand was not met, they resorted to damaging the shop,” a source familiar with the case said.
The insider added an employee was injured on her hand by flying glass shards after the assailants broke several mahjong tables and a television on the premises.
The woman, 59, did not require hospital treatment, he noted.
Police said three other assailants simultaneously burst into an adjacent parlour, damaging mahjong tables, two chairs, one computer, a television and a cabinet with batons and a knife.
The seven, who were wearing caps and face masks, fled before officers arrived at the scene following a call from a staff member at around 12.15am, according to the force.
Officers from the Tsuen Wan criminal investigation unit are investigating. No arrests have been made so far.
In the third quarter of last year, three mahjong parlours in the Kowloon West region were targeted amid a money dispute between two triad gangs.
In July, more than 10 thugs broke into a Mong Kok parlour in an attempt to collect a HK$60 million debt from one of its owners, known as “Fei Kin” and suspected to be a member of Wo Shing Wo triad.
Another mahjong parlour, owned by Fei Kin, in Sham Shui Po was stormed by more than 30 people in September.
About a week later, more than 20 assailants broke into a mahjong parlour in Cheung Sha Wan in apparent retaliation for the previous attack.
Police handled 5,298 reports of criminal damage across the city last year, a 2.4 per cent rise from 5,172 cases logged in 2022.