The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Patty Magubira
2 November 2009
Armed robbers raided GBP petrol station at Nyakato are on the outskirts of Mwanza City and made away with unspecified amount of daily sales of the station on Saturnday night.
The armed bandits opened fire in the air eight times to scare away passers-by at around 7:00pm when it was raining cats and dogs in the city, Mwanza region police commander, Jamal Rwambow, confirmed yesterday.
Rwambow, who could not divulge details on the incident because he is in the Vice-President's entourage, said the police force in the region was holding five suspects in connection with the incident.
The vice-President, Dr Ali Mohamed Shein, is in a three-day tour of Mwanza region with effect from Saturday.
One of the suspects, according to the RPC, was former employee of the petrol station, who was dismissed.
Commuters aboard commuter buses, which were filling diesel at the petrol station, had to exit the minibuses through the windows and run for their lives as a result of the gunfire pandemonium, eyewitnesses said.
Some of the passers-by, who sought shelter at the petrol station, during the downpour, had to surrender themselves by lying down and in drainage trenches by the time the armed bandits opened fire in the air.
One of the city residents, who was on his way to his workplace at a hotel at Nyakato area, aid he had his right arm injured during the incident.
"I was forced to jump into a drainage trench in fear of the bandits," he told The Citizen under the condition of anonymity at the hotel yesterday.
He saw over six armed bandits raiding the petrol station, while others barricading the Mwanza-Musoma Highway throughout the incident, he explained.
Rwambow directed reporters to consult acting regional police commander, Elias Kalinga, for more information, but,to the astonishment of reporters, Kalinga said he was not informed of the incident yet, promising to issue a statement at a later stage.
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