A Hong Kong woman was caught crossing the border into Shenzhen with an unregistered pet dog at Luohu Checkpoint recently, the Daily Sunshine reported yesterday.

The unidentified woman was ordered to have her handbag undergone random X-ray check when she entered the Luohu entry hall, looking rather nervous.

A mobile object inside her bag shown on the X-ray machine screen caught customs officials' attention. They stopped the woman, who grabbed her bag and tried to escape, and interrogated her.

The customs officials found the dog, worth more than HK$6,000 (US$771), with its mouth taped inside the woman's handbag, the paper said.

The woman failed to produce a valid registration certificate or a vaccination certificate for the dog, the paper said. And she had not declared it to customs either, according to the Daily report.

The woman was ordered to return to the Hong Kong side with the dog.

More than 10 cases of taking unregistered animals into Shenzhen have been recorded so far this year.

According to the regulations, each passenger crossing the border into the mainland is allowed to take only one animal with valid registration and vaccination certificates.

Editor: Yan