BANDITS purporting to be traffic police officers in Kabwe yesterday snatched a motor vehicle from a woman.

Police have since launched a manhunt for the four criminals who got the car at a shopping complex in Highridge area on Tuesday evening.

Central Province commissioner of police Standwell Lungu said the criminals believed to be behind a spate of robberies in Kabwe snatched the vehicle at gun point.

The gun-wielding men sped off from the shopping complex around 18:00 hours as shoppers and passersby watched helplessly.

Mr Lungu said the robbers purporting to be traffic officers waylaid the motorist and later produced an AK47 rifle.

He said the criminals are suspected to be a combination of Zambian and foreigners from a neighbouring country.

"The theft comes barely two weeks after another vehicle was stolen in the same area," Mr Lungu said.

Meanwhile, police have instituted investigations into the killing of a truck driver and his lorry mate whose bodies were found in a bush in Chisamba.

Mr Lungu said the two were hired from Lusaka to take oranges to the Copperbelt but were later found dead in the bush with stab wounds.