Hong Kong customs officials have seized 3.9 metric tons (4.29 short tons) in elephant tusks smuggled in a shipping container from Cameroon, the government said Wednesday.

The tusks, worth about HK$8 million (US$1.03 million, euro807,290), were the largest such seizure "in recent years," Hong Kong Customs said in a statement. Officials couldn't say when the last big seizure was.

Officers found the tusks in a concealed compartment in a shipping container that was declared to be carrying timber from the West African nation of Cameroon, the statement said.