The organisation behind the Hong Kong Streetathon on Monday again apologised to runners who had trouble retrieving their bags after the race on Sunday and pledged to improve the baggage claim system.

With a new system introduced this year, runners were supposed to scan their bibs at a kiosk to locate the zone where their bags were stored.

However, a system malfunction caused long queues at the finish-line baggage claim, with some runners waiting up to two hours.

Organisers RunOurCity estimated that around 2,000 participants were affected.

Andes Leung, the co-founder and CEO of RunOurCity, said a signal failure had prevented the scanners from syncing its database, which was responsible for showing bag locations.

Staff ended up having to resort to manually arranging the bags by bib number.

"We had to further understand the situation internally and with the on-site departments, including the logistics company," Leung told an RTHK radio programme.

"We recognise our shortcomings, but we need to identify the right solutions. We must understand the full picture before making deployments. Of course, we know there was a problem with the system, therefore we will review both our main and backup systems to improve contingency plans."

Photos shared online also showed bags piled up on the ground, with some runners rummaging through them to find their belongings.

Leung said RunOurCity received seven reports of missing bags.

He said runners were not expected to enter the baggage storage area, adding that organisers would also review crowd management procedures.