January 13, 2002	Sunday	Shawwal 28, 1422

HONG KONG, Jan 12: Two wealthy Indian businessmen were robbed of a “substantial” amount of money after being bound and beaten in a notorious Hong Kong guesthouse, police said on Saturday.

The two men, aged 31 and 48, were asleep in their room at the downmarket ChungKing Mansions guesthouse in the popular shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui when they were disturbed by a knock on the door in the small hours of Friday morning, a policewoman said.

“When they answered the door, two Chinese males burst in and threatened them. They were beaten with what appeared to be a pistol and tied up,” she said.

The two men fled with a bag containing a “substantial amount of money”, reported by the South China Morning Post to be $US 200,000.

Heavily armed officers searched the myriad of dark corridors inside the sleazy guesthouse, infamous for a number of mysterious deaths that have occurred on the premises, but found no trace of the robbers.

The Indian pair were taken to hospital and treated for head injuries before being released soon after.—AFP