South Korean gamblers arrested for theft in Da Nang

At about 7 p.m. last Friday, Le Tran Tuan Hoang, 41, the tour guide, went to a hotel on Nguyen Van Linh Street to help his customers check in. While he was waiting for them, he left his backpack with about VND150 million ($6,464) in the hotel lobby, went out for a smoke and met up with a friend.

Around that time, South Koreans Seo Kyoung Won, 50, and Kim Kwang Seung, 63, came out of the hotel. Seo took Hoang's backpack. The two men then had some beers, sang some karaoke songs, and at around 10 p.m. on the same day, Kim went back to the hotel, while Seo took a taxi to a casino.

Hoang reported his loss to the police and they tracked the Koreans down on Saturday.

Seo told the police that he had changed the money in the bag for $4,000, gambled and lost the whole sum. He said he threw the backpack on the road, but the authorities have not found it yet.

Da Nang, Vietnam's third largest city, is a popular beach destination. The city received nearly 2.9 million foreign tourists last year, up 23 percent from 2017.