Armed robbers raided a local company on Sunday night before stealing over US$120 000 cash, amid suspicions that most of these robberies involve insiders.

This month, several companies have lost various amounts of cash to robbers who are raiding their premises especially during the night.

Police believe that some of the employees or people closely associated with most of these companies are supplying criminals with inside information.

On Sunday night, more than six armed robbers raided the company (name withheld pending investigations) where they attacked security guards manning the premises before stealing the cash that was in a safe.

The cash is believed to have been kept at the company following sales done between Friday and Sunday.

National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the incident and said investigations were still in progress.

"We have been recording most of these cases in which large amounts of cash are being stolen and we strongly believe that there is an element of inside information from the staff or from some people closely associated with the company. For such cases to occur, someone will have released information to criminals or there is leakage of information.

"We would, however, like to urge companies to step up their security at their premises and also to avoid keeping large amounts of cash," he said.

In a related matter, police in Harare are investigating cases in which armed robbers stole over US$28 000 cash in separate incidents over the weekend.

In one of the cases,the robbers stole over US$6 400 from a company in Harare while on the second incident, they robbed a motorist of US$22 000 after blocking his vehicle.