Maputo — Four armed men attempted to kidnap an Indian businessman in central Maputo on Monday afternoon, but the crime was foiled by the victim’s family, according to a report on the independent television station, STV.
The businessman, Adir Mansur, had been at lunch with his wife and two children in a restaurant on Olaf Palme Avenue, but was attacked as he was leaving, at about 14.30.
The four would-be kidnappers, armed with AK-47 assault rifles, drove their vehicle, a Toyota Mark X, close to the restaurant, and two of them jumped out to intercept Mansur.
According to an eye-witness, Mansur, realising what was happening, tried to run back to the restaurant, but the two men followed him, and one of them wrestled him to the ground, a scene caught on the restaurant’s closed circuit TV.
The Toyota came closer to facilitate the kidnapping, but Mansur’s wife and children intervened to protect him. The wife grabbed her husband and blocked the car door so that he could not be abducted. The children also tried to help, and one of them even picked up the gun which one of the kidnappers had dropped.
“But the bandit managed to recover the gun”, said the witness. Passers-by shouted at the gang, who fired two shots into the pavement. When they saw that the kidnapping had been foiled, they left and drove calmly away. The criminals did not even bother to wear masks.
The Maputo city police spokesperson, Leonel Muchina, said the police went to the restaurant as soon as they heard of the attempted kidnapping. “We closed off all the likely routes of escape, but we did not have the success we hoped for”, he said. “The criminals managed to make their getaway”.
Meanwhile, two police officers in Maputo province are on the run, after they stole more than five million meticais (about 79,000 US dollars at current exchange rates) from a Chinese businessman.
According to a report on Radio Mozambique, the two policemen were part of a six member gang who also included an agent of the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic), who is now in police detention.
The Sernic Maputo spokesperson. Elino Panguana, said the scheme to steal the money had involved the policemen and some of the businessman’s employees, who were also detained. The police managed to recover 2.3 million meticais, and a minibus and a motorcycle purchased with the rest of the money.