Consecutive chain snatching incidents cause panic in the city

In yet another chain snatching spree in Vizag, motorbike-borne miscreants targetted women in the city on Friday morning. Five chain snatching cases were reported within a radius of 7 km, causing worry among the citizens.

The chain snatching incidents were reported between 8:45 am and 9:45 am from under Airport, Gopalapatnam, Dwaraka and Pendurthi police stations limits in the city. Reportedly, all the crimes were committed by two youngsters who rode a motorbike.

In one of the incident, the wrong-doers targetted A. Padmavathi from Susarla Colony under Airport police station limits. The woman was robbed off her 80 gm gold chain when she was on her way to a temple.

In another incident, a 60 gm gold chain was snatched away from K. Lalitha Kumar at Bajji Junction area under Airport police station limits. Overall, the miscreants robbed about 240 gms of gold in the five incidents, it has been reported.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (crimes) V. Suresh Babu said that the police had procured the CCTV footage of the two-member squad that carried out the chain-snatch spree. Mr Babu also informed that the authorities were suspecting hand of the same gang in all the five incidents, as they seemed to have a good knowledge of the topography of the areas.

A few months, a similar chain snatching spree was reported when two youngsters robbed four women in Vizag within a span of just 25 minutes. The robberies, which had started off at Buchirajupalem, were subsequently reported at Shantinagar (near NAD), Marripalem, and Balayya Sastri Layout in the city. Reportedly, the robbers had accounted for close to 215.8 grams of gold in their 25-minutes stint