Two out of six suspected highway robbers who mounted a roadblock at Tsopoli on the Accra- Ada highway to attack passengers were killed in a shoot-out with the police at dawn last Saturday while the others escaped arrest.

The robbers, suspected to be Fulani herdsmen, were armed with pump action guns and a pistol.

The Tema Regional Police have intensified their search for the four suspects who escaped with gunshot wounds and have thus called on the public to assist in arresting the suspects.

According to the Tema Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP),Mrs Beatrice Zakpaa Vib-Sanziri, about 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, the driver of a tipper truck, with registration number GE 891-12, was stopped by the suspects a short distance from Dawa, near Tsopoli, and ordered to use his truck to block the road, to which he obliged, for fear of being killed.

She said a Toyota saloon car, with registration number GW 5262 -13, which was on its way to Tema from Aflao got to the scene but the driver refused to stop when he was ordered by the suspects.

That, according to Mrs Vib-Sanziri, infuriated the suspected robbers, who allegedly opened fire on the vehicle.

She said the driver eventually lost control of the vehicle and ran into the tipper truck which had been used to block the road, killing two of the three occupants of the car, with the third sustaining severe injuries.

Mrs Vib-Sanziri said the next vehicle that arrived at the scene was a State Transport Corporation (STC) bus, with registration number ER 2537-11, which was travelling from Abidjan to Benin.

She said the six suspects ordered the bus to stop and the driver obliged. They entered it and while collecting money and items from the passengers, the Tema Regional Highway Patrol team had information about the attack on the passengers on the bus and rushed to their rescue.

The regional commander said on seeing the police, the robbers fled into the nearby bush but the police mobilised some of the villagers to search for them.

She said when the robbers realised that the police were closing in on them, they opened fire, to which the police responded, and later two of the robbers were found dead in the bush from gunshot wounds, while the four had escaped.