Maintenance workers Lau Kwok-kei, 37, and Zafar Tai Tin-ho, 30, a 17-year-old waiter, So, and a 16-year-old female vocational training student, Yu, are charged with one count of false imprisonment, and will be held in custody until Thursday - when their case will be heard - to allow police to arrange an identification parade. No pleas were taken from them.

They are alleged to have attacked the woman, whom the court identified only as X, at a minibus stop outside the Hong Kong Correctional Services Academy on Tung Tau Wan Road in Stanley, on Saturday and falsely imprisoned her.

Two officers of the Correctional Services Department came under fire over the weekend for failing to stop the abduction and allowing the offenders to get away.

In a video clip of Saturday's attack, one of the two CSD officers can be heard saying "sir, don't fight" as another officer tried to pull one of the attackers off the victim, but to no avail. Both of them failed to prevent the attackers from taking the victim away.

It is understood that the abduction was allegedly orchestrated by Lau, who had a dispute with the victim over HK$50,000.