Chinese police seized a dozen supercars including Ferraris and McLarens and detained a group of middle-aged street racers from Hong Kong, some of whom were caught doing more than 250 kilometres per hour, reports said on Friday.
The group had engaged in two days of high-speed racing on public roads in Shenzhen, the mainland Chinese boom town across the border from the former British colony, where roads are wider, straighter and longer than in the cramped financial hub.
One of the drivers was timed making the 22km trip between Shenzhen and the city of Dongguan in just six minutes, the state-run Global Times said.
Twelve cars were seized by police, the newspaper added, including models by Lamborghini, Ferrari and McLaren.
The Southern Daily, based in Guangdong province, which includes Shenzhen, said all the suspects were Hong Kong citizens aged between 38 and 62. It added that it was the largest and most dangerous street racing case ever seen by police in Shenzhen.
“Those drivers thought they were on a race track,” it quoted a witness surnamed Wang as saying. “They didn’t care about other cars on the road.”Police plan to charge the suspects with dangerous driving, according to the Global Times.
None of the detainees’ names were available, and police could not be reached for comment on what would happen to the cars.
Footage from traffic cameras broadcast on Chinese television showed cars speeding along a highway, weaving between other vehicles.
“We are investigating a case of high speed racing along the riverside expressway,” the Shenzhen public security bureau said on its verified microblog.