'Wake up, run': Actress Nancy Sit recalls attempt to kidnap her in Taiping, Malaysia

Nancy Lee was staying in a hotel with her mother and Bruce Lee's childhood pal Unicorn Chan when the kidnapping attempt occurred. ST PHOTO: GIN TAY

A friend of gongfu legend Bruce Lee helped Nancy Sit to escape a bid to kidnap her.

Hong Kong artist Sit was then a popular child actress in the 1960s.

She was in Taiping in Malaysia, staying in a hotel with her mother and Lee's childhood pal Unicorn Chan.

Sit, 69, related this dark episode in her life on TVB variety show Liza's Online last week, in a segment called True Or False.

At 3am, there was a loud knocking on her hotel room door, she recalled.

She was told to "get up" and "run", which she did with her mother.

"I was still holding onto my pillow and didn't know what was going on."

They, and other production crew, left in three cars, heading to Ipoh.

But they had to stop mid-way as the tyres on all the vehicles were punctured.

Sit said Chan, armed with a knife, reacted by staying close to her.

Alarmed by the situation, she cried though others tried to calm her down.

"I had a bodyguard who said he would go and inform the police. There were no mobile phones then."

Sit said the police soon arrived, but they had been alerted by the boss of a company that had arranged for her to perform in Malaysia.

"Chan carried a knife because he noticed that the bodyguard was looking suspiciously at the car tyres earlier," Sit told the audience in the studio, some of whom were sceptical of her story.

It turned out that her bodyguard had conspired with others in the abduction attempt.

He "made an excuse to leave us to call the police but he was actually going to inform" his gang members to strike.

Sit did not tell the show audience whether her bodyguard was later caught and jailed, saying only that it was fortunate that Chan was with her then.

When Wang asked the audience if they believed her, not all were convinced but Sit confirmed that she had told the truth in that show segment.

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