Police have arrested seven persons after a man was stabbed and robbed of gold bars worth HK$7 million at a Hong Kong International Airport car park on Thursday.

Police said on Saturday that four men and three women, aged 20 to 39, were nabbed, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit the robbery and abetting criminals, within 12 hours after the heist was reported, according to local media.

Some of the arrested suspects have triad backgrounds while others who are still on the loose are believed to have fled to the Chinese mainland, police said, adding that they have sought help from mainland law enforcement authorities.

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The victim had just arrived from Bali, Indonesia, early on Thursday, carrying six gold bars in his backpack for a mainland businessman, when three masked men attacked him as he was walking to the airport car park 3 to get his vehicle, police said.    

Armed with knives, the assailants stabbed the victim in his left hand and foot before they fled with his backpack on a seven-seater vehicle. Investigators later recovered the vehicle and knives used in the crime in Tsuen Wan.

The victim was brought to the Princess Margaret Hospital and is in stable condition, police said.  

Police added that the robbery was not a random crime and that an “insider” might be involved since the assailants apparently knew of the victim’s flight and parking spot.