Maputo — The Mozambican Police (PRM) last week arrested a group of five individuals accused of vandalizing a metallic bridge in the locality of Sabelua, in Milange district, in the central province of Zambezia.

The police spokesperson in Zambezia, Sidner Lonzo, speaking on Monday at his weekly press briefing, said preliminary information points to damage of just over 10 million meticais (about 156,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate).

The original bridge was partially destroyed during the passage of the tropical depression "Gombe" in March this year, and was temporarily replaced by a metallic bridge.

According to Lonzo, the suspects fell into the hands of the police in possession of parts of the bridge, when they were on their way to a company dedicated to buying and selling scrap iron in the provincial capital, Quelimane.

"The first operation of the bandits was successfully carried out on a date that could not be ascertained, hence they felt encouraged to carry out a second operation. The detention of the accused resulted from the denunciation to the local community authorities after the alleged silence of the police chief of that region", said Lonzo.

"Operational actions are still under way to neutralize the remaining members of the gang that is dedicated to vandalizing public property", he added.

Questioned about the alleged connivance of the community authorities on this type of crime, the Permanent Secretary of Milange district, Rosa Savaio, refused to comment on the matter, claiming that this is still a case under the jurisdiction of the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic).

"As I said, we only learned about it through the social networks and later an operational line was activated at various levels", she explained.

In Zambezia there are recurrent reports about the vandalizing and theft of metallic infrastructures, especially the assets of the Mozambican public electricity Company (EDM), a practice stimulated by the growing demand for scrap metal in the country and abroad.