Police in Lilongwe on Monday shot dead two armed robbers and injured two in the process after an hour of a running gun battle with the suspected robbers.
According to media reports the said armed robbers were targetting Puma Service Station situated between Lilongwe West Bay-pass Road roundabout and Gateway Mall.
Inspector General of Police (IG) Paul Kanyama confirmed of the incident in an interview to print Media and online websites.
According to Kanyama, Police were tipped off from well-wishers of the said criminal act planned for lunch hour at Puma Service Station.
He said the CID officers mounted a roadbrock near Biwi and Lilongwe Technical College where the vehicle the robbers were using was flagged to a stop.
“When the robbers realised that Police were after them they abandoned the vehicle and started to run away, this prompted the officers to shoot in the air to scare the robbers but this did not yield anything”, said Kanyama
He added: “The development forced the officers to shoot to death two of the criminals, one escaped while two others were succefully arrested”.
During the incident police recovered an AK 47 assault rifle with 18 rounds of ammunition, a sharp axe, one shock stick, Valium and 20 meticais.
Meanwhile Police have identified the two arrested criminals a Ngalande Kapalamula, 40, from Chinkombero Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Malili in Lilongwe and Howard Chazemba, 41, of Smith Village, T/A Malili, but based in Area 23.