SINGAPORE - Three men, aged between 37 and 50, have been arrested for allegedly robbing two women of their mobile phones and hurting them with a penknife.

Police received a report at about 3pm on Monday (Sept 23) that two women had been slashed with a penknife at Block 532 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10.

The women were robbed of five mobile phones, which belonged to them and their colleague, police said in a statement on Tuesday.

The robbers are believed to have gone into a massage parlour at the block to rob the women who work there, reported Chinese-language daily Lianhe Wanbao. One of the women is understood to have a neck injury while another has an arm injury.

Some coffee shop customers told Wanbao that they heard the screams of a woman after the men entered the parlour.

One of the women was then seen rushing out of the shop and running into a neighbouring provision store.

A worker at the provision shop said that two men later rushed into the store to look for the woman, who was hiding in the shop's second floor.

When the worker tried to block the way of one of the men, he shouted that the woman had allegedly stolen his money and asked for her to come out of hiding.

The men later left the shop and were nowhere to be seen when the police arrived shortly after.

About 20 to 30 police officers were at the scene, reported citizen journalism website Stomp.

Officers from the Ang Mo Kio Police Division arrested the men after establishing their identities through closed-circuit television footage and inquiries on the ground.

The men will be charged in court on Wednesday with robbery with hurt, which carries a jail term of five to 20 years and at least 12 strokes of the cane.