Veteran Hong Kong actress Kathy Chow has died aged 57 after an illness.

In a Weibo post, her office confirmed that Chow died on Monday, quoting her mother as saying she wishes her daughter will "stay happy in another world".

Chow was best known for portraying Zhou Zhiruo in the 1994 version of the martial heroes TV series The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber.

A Miss Hong Kong pageant participant in 1985, Chow spent the early years of her career with TVB, starring in popular series such as Time Before Time and Looking Back in Anger.

She briefly joined ATV in the late 1990s before focusing her career on the mainland.