07 October 2004	Thursday	21 Shaban 1425

HONG KONG, Oct 6: A Hong Kong bank that trashed 83 safety deposit boxes and their valuable contents apologized on Wednesday for the blunder and offered customers a compensation package worth up to 1.6 million dollars.

Cash, jewels and other heirlooms were believed to be among the items destroyed when the boxes kept at the DBS Bank branch in Kowloon district were accidentally mixed up with about 900 lockers earmarked for crushing as part of renovations.

Company officials said they only discovered the bungle after the boxes had been destroyed in an industrial compressor. On Wednesday the DBS' chairman Jones Lang Lasalle, apologised for the embarrassing mishap.

The bank said it would offer each affected customer 50,000 Hong Kong dollars plus an additional 100,000 dollars if they settled speedily. It will also pay for the recovery of lost documents and sit in one-on-one negotiations with customers who opted against a quick settlement. -AFP