Six suspects have been arrested for robbing two foreigners and two Chinese during an orienteering race in south China's Hainan Province, said police at a press conference Tuesday.
The police in Sanya, Hainan, have issued a warrant for the seventh and last suspect, said Zhang Yunxu from the publicity department of Sanya Public Security Bureau.
Among the six arrested, five participated in the robbery in Nanxin Ranch in Sanya, and the other was arrested for disposing of the stolen goods.
The robbery took place at around 4 p.m. on April 4, when a few people were left behind after the orienteering race. Two foreign women in their 30s, one from Latvia and the other from Finland, a local woman resident and a male guide were the victims.
The robbers, riding on two motorcycles, seized with force the necklaces of the two foreign women, a mobile phone of the Sanya resident and injured the guide with a knife before taking away his backpack containing a large amount of cash worth 4,700 U.S. dollars.
Police combed five villages in Hainan to seek the robbers. They nabbed the six suspects at 3 a.m. Sunday in a village called Shuijiao.
However, most of the goods and money looted has been either disposed or spent by the suspects, apart for the mobile phone, said Zhang.
The suspects could be jailed for 10 years for the armed robbery, Zhang said.
The police officer did not give the names of the two foreign victims.
(Xinhua News Agency May 6, 2009)
