THIEVES stole diamonds and other jewelry worth US$3 million in three separate robberies during a jewelry fair in downtown Hong Kong, police said yesterday.

　　The biggest theft involved a box of diamonds totaling 659 carats and worth US$2.04 million, which was reported missing by a 34-year-old Belgian dealer Wednesday morning, police spokesman Sidney Chan said.

　　The dealer, who was identified only by his surname Raz, told police he put the box in a safe inside the exhibition hall Tuesday night but it was missing the next morning, Chan said.

　　In another case, the employee of another exhibitor reported a box of 90 diamonds worth HK$6 million (US$771,000) was stolen from a bench in his booth.

　　He told police he put the box on the bench rather than back into a safe as he had intended, after a foreign woman asked him to show her some jewelry. After helping the woman, the staff found the box was missing. Police are looking for the woman, Chan said.

　　In the third heist, a suitcase containing diamonds and gold jewelry worth HK$1.5 million was apparently stolen while it was being delivered to the exhibition hall.

　　Chan said there was no evidence that the three thefts were related and no one had been arrested.

　　The fair, which opened Wednesday, runs through Sunday.

　　(SD-Agencies)