HONG KONG – Hong Kong police arrested five men who were attempting to rob a jewellery shop, with dramatic footage showing the masked assailants wielding machetes and sledgehammers in the store.

The attempted daytime robbery took place in the bustling Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district on May 7, when the five men were shown on closed-circuit television footage alighting from a white car.

They rushed into a watch and jewellery shop and started smashing display windows, as employees appeared to stand by.

Less than 20 seconds later, according to the footage, plain-clothes police officers rushed in with guns drawn, stunning the robbers, who discarded their weapons and dropped to the floor.

Police Superintendent Gar Kam Lam said criminal investigators had been collecting intelligence, and knew that luxury goods stores around Tsim Sha Tsui were a frequent target for robberies.

“Officers saw the men enter the store with machetes and hammers, so officers went into the store and successfully subdued them,” he said during a press briefing.

The five arrested were aged between 23 and 36, with only one of them holding a Hong Kong identity card.

Two others held recognisance forms, which allow them to stay in the city but bar them from working, while the remaining two are suspected to be illegal entrants, said Supt Gar. AFP