Maputo — Two Maputo policemen were shot on Tuesday night as they were preparing to go on patrol, reports Thursday's issue of the independent daily "O Pais".

The attack took place in the car park of the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC), just a few metres from the Maputo City Police Command, in the very heart of the city.

Both of the injured policemen required surgery to remove the bullets. They are now said to be out of danger.

This is the second attack on police in the space of two days. On Monday night, two policemen were injured when they came under fire in the inner Maputo neighbourhood of Coop.

On Tuesday night, the newly appointed commander of the Maputo police, Jose Weng San, took personal command of the search for the gunmen, apparently without success. He told "O Pais" that he thought these attacks were retaliation against the police for the recent dismantling of 13 criminal gangs in the capital.

The attacks can also be read as a deliberate challenge to Weng San who a week ago promised to put the bandits on the defensive, and staunch the wave of attacks against police officers.

Deputy Interior Minister Jose Mandra declared on Wednesday that these attacks meant that criminals had opted for "open confrontation with the forces of law and order"

Speaking to reporters, he denied that the police are losing the battle. "How can they (the criminals) defeat a structured government police force, with thousands of trained policemen?", Mandra asked. "They don't have academies or training centres such as we have, and so we are going to catch them".

Nonetheless, he admitted that the police needed to improve their interventions in order to deal with the type of crime that was now stalking the streets of Maputo. "The police must understand that the mere fact they are on the streets is not enough to prevent crime", he said. "Their role is not one of dissuasion, but of intervention, because the bandits do not act haphazardly. They plan their moves, they know how to escape police action, they know where our police stations and our patrols are. They do everything so as not to be caught".

"The bandits have problems. They know they're being hunted", he said. "Some have been caught and they are providing us with information that will allow us to act".