Hong Kong  - Nine men faced charges in a Hong Kong court Saturday in connection with the execution-style murder of a feared triad gang leader outside a luxury hotel in Hong Kong.

Lee Tai-lung, 44, known as the "Baron of Tsim Sha Tsui East," was run down by a van outside the five-star Kowloon Shangri-la Hotel on August 4 and then hacked to death by three men with knives.

Police said the attack was a well-organized hit using a technique known among Hong Kong's notorious triad gangs as "ram and chop." The gangs run prostitution, drugs and extortion rackets across the city.

The assassins used caps to cover their faces, and the vehicles used were later found burned out in Tai Po near Hong Kong's border with mainland China.

Seventeen people were arrested Thursday in connection with the killing and nine of them appeared in Eastern Court Saturday.

Eight of the accused faced a joint count of conspiracy to commit murder while the ninth was charged with conspiracy to wound. No pleas were taken and the defendants were remanded in custody until Thursday.

Police say the murder bore the hallmarks of a hit by the Wo Shing Wo triad faction. Lee, a former boxer, had been linked to two attacks on high-ranking members of the gang in 2002 and 2006.

His killing appears to be connected to a long-running battle for control between Wo Shing Wo and Lee's Sun Yee On triad factions for control of the lucrative entertainment district in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Lee was a "red pole" fighter for the Sun Yee On triad faction, a senior member with a reputation for ferocity who often played the role of enforcer on behalf of his gang.

The influence of triad gangs in Hong Kong has waned since their heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, but police estimate they remain responsible for 3 per cent of all crime in the city of 7 million. (dpa)