SINGAPORE, Dec 30: More than five million US dollars’ worth of watches have been stolen from a Singapore shop, the dealer said, in a rare crime of such magnitude in one of Asia’s safest cities.

Cortina Holdings, which has outlets in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong, said it discovered the theft last Friday.

“The theft involves timepieces at a net cost of about 7.9 million Singapore dollars (5.5 million US),” Cortina said in a statement late on Monday to the Singapore Exchange.

The theft occurred at Cortina’s outlet in the Raffles City shopping mall after the close of business on Christmas Day and before the store opened on Friday, it said, adding that the incident would hit the company financially.—AFP