Hong Kong - A Swiss karate champion and former bodyguard to Hollywood celebrities has been found dead in a Hong Kong love hotel, a news report said Wednesday. Pierre Ingrassia, 45, was found alone in a hotel in the city's Wan Chai nightclub district where he booked a room for three hours on Sunday, the South China Morning Post reported.
Police were carrying out toxicology tests to find out what killed Ingrassia, a karate and Thai Boxing expert who ran two gyms in Hong Kong offering martial arts and fitness training, the newspaper said.
Friends say superfit Ingrassia was a household name in martial arts circles and his gym website describes him as a former bodyguard to Hollywood stars including Sylvester Stallone and Tom Cruise.
His death follows a number of high-profile incidents involving expatriates found dead after evenings out in the Wan Chai nightclub district of Hong Kong.
Last October, two American businessmen were found dead in a room of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Wan Chai after returning with two women and reportedly taking drugs.
In 2003, a senior Finnish policeman died of a heart attack in Hong Kong's Island Shangri-la hotel after being administered with the "date rape" drug flunitrazepam, or Rohypnol.
