Maputo — The Mozambican police have arrested eight people in connection with the theft of 400 kilos of copper cable from the aluminium terminal at Matola port, reports Monday's issue of the daily paper "Noticias".

Seven of the people arrested are guards from the private security company Grey, hired to protect the terminal. The eighth, named as Joao Ngomane, is the owner of the vehicle used to transport the stolen cables.

A ninth person, the man who hired Ngomane, is still at large. He is said to have paid the thieves two million meticais (85 US dollars) to take the cables out of the port.

The police also announced the recovery of two tonnes of copper and aluminium stolen from a number of companies, including the aluminium smelter MOZAL, and the publicly owned electricity company, EDM. The circumstances of these seizures was not made public.

The spokesman for the Maputo provincial police command, Joao Machava, said that the metallic goods stolen in the province are sold to a recycling company in Matola, which he did not name.

EDM is the company worst hit by the thefts, which regularly plunge parts of the province into darkness, when thieves cut down electricity cables.