HONG KONG - Fifteen second-hand designer handbags - 14 Hermes handbags and one YSL handbag- worth HK$1.44 million (S$248,645) were stolen on Monday (Dec 4) morning from a pop-up store sited in Hong Kong's busy financial district of Central, reported Hong Kong media.

Police are searching for three suspects after the store display window was found smashed.

"The display window was broken, and the shop had been ransacked. A one-metre sledgehammer was found inside the store," a police spokesman said.

The store on ground level of the Man Yee Building shopping centre in Central was fenced off as investigators gathered evidence at the scene, reported South China Morning Post.

After viewing security camera footage, officers are searching for three suspects in connection with the case.

"Three masked men used a hammer to break the display window of the store at about 6.30am before entering," a police source told SCMP, adding that the raid took less than a minute.

Two of the burglars were also wearing hats.

So far, no one has been arrested.

The shop, which opened on Oct 24, is a pop-up store for online luxury bazaar Guiltless. According to its website, the store is expected to be open until Dec 26.

Guiltless was founded by Yen Kuok, the youngest child of Malaysian billionaire Robert Kuok.

Like many of the items the company carries, the stolen handbags were second-hand items.

Monday's smash-and-grab raid came three months after three thieves made off with HK$24 million worth of jewellery from a Chow Sang Sang jewellery store in the busy Tsim Sha Tsui district. The three robbers fled on a motorcycle.

In March, a masked man used a sledgehammer to break the display window of another jewellery shop in Tsim Sha Tsui and made off with a diamond worth HK$5.2 million.

Police handled 137 reports of robbery in the first 10 months of this year, down 39 per cent compared with the figure in the same period last year.