7 Hong Kong prison officers arrested after gang-rape allegations

Seven Hong Kong prison officers were arrested and suspended from work on Wednesday, the city's Correctional Services Department said, after police said officers sexually assaulted and gang-raped a woman after a party over the weekend.

The seven officers, aged in their 20s and 30s, have been suspended from their duties and any violation of law would not be tolerated, the Correctional Services Department said in a statement.

On July 9, police said they received a report from a 31-year old woman that she was raped in a unit in Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui district. After investigating, police said they arrested seven local men between the ages of 23 and 38 on July 11 and 12 on suspicion of rape.

All those arrested have been detained for further investigation, police said.

Broadcaster Cable TV said the female victim had been invited to a party in an apartment complex in Tsim Sha Tsui which seven correctional officers also attended.

Three male officers are suspected of raping the 31-year old woman at the apartment, while four other officers masturbated as they watched the incident by the bed, the South China Morning Post reported. The victim told the police she was drunk and passed out before she was raped, the paper said.

She reported the case to the police after she regained consciousness the next morning alone and naked in the flat, the paper said.

Police did not reply to a request for comment.