An unidentified robber has been shot and killed in a shootout with the Police at Sawaba, a suburb of Central Gonja District of Savannah Region on the Tamale Buipe Highway.

The incident occurred after the alleged robber, together with 10 other suspects attempted to rob a group of passengers in a different car failed.

Narrating the incident to JoyNews, the Acting Savannah Regional Police Command PRO, Adjekum Owusu, said the suspected robbers were armed with locally manufactured shotguns.

According to him, they emerged from the nearby bush and started firing on the Goaso-Bawku bound bus with registration number GS 5578-17 heading towards Bawku in the Upper East Region.

“The armed men, after ordering the passengers to alight from the bus, asked them to lie down in an attempt to rob them.”

Unfortunately for the robbers, “our men were on an escort from a point called mile 40 to Buipe but the robbers seeing their vehicle thought it was another bounty so they stopped that bus to rob them too.

He said, the robbers, spotting a policeman in the bus, “started firing and police also returned fire,” fortunately, one of the robbers was hit and the rest escaped.

Police, however, tried to sustain the deceased by taking him to the Buipe Poly Clinic where he was pronounced dead.

The Body of the deceased has since been deposited at the Tamale Teaching Hospital Mortuary for identification and autopsy.

Sergeant Adjekum Owusu noted that despite all the logistical constraints including vehicles, the police have been able to reduce robbery menace, especially in the Bamboi -Wa highway road.

“The command thought it wise to have what we call the on the vehicle escort so that if there is no vehicle for us to ply the road, at least we will be located at a point and join the passenger cars to escort them through the dangerous highways.”

He said the police are currently in search for the other suspects believed to be Fulani.