A police officer has been shot dead by a group of armed robbers in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.

The officer, Corporal Frank Essel, a driver with the SWAT Unit at the Ashanti Regional police headquarters was shot on May 19 after the armed robbers stormed a hotel at Dichemmuoso in Kumasi.

Sources close to Joy News have disclosed the police officer was shot in his vehicle parked in the premises of Open Space Hotel. 

The masked armed men are reported to have entered the hotel at about 9p.m. and ordered two receptionists on duty to take them round rooms of guests in the hotel.

When the receptionists were delaying, the armed robbers shot one of them. Sensing danger, the other person escaped.

It is, however, not clear how the officer who had his police uniform hanging in the front seat of the Benz car he was shot in.

A search by the police uncovered the  bullet –ridden body of Corporal Essel seated behind the steering wheel parked within the premises.