Drama as two armed criminals shot dead in gunfight

Two armed criminals were Friday night shot dead along Nairobi's Mombasa road.

The dramatic shootout involved officers from the Special Crime Prevention Unit occurred at Bellevue on Mombasa road at 8pm causing a two hours heavy traffic snarl-up.

However, four other gangsters escaped in a Toyota Rav4 vehicle towards the airport.

Police managed to recover an AK 47, an M16 assault rifle, two Browning pistols, three police communication equipments, several Administration Police and military jungle jackets, 154 bullets and a Toyota Prado TX vehicle.

Also found in the car were two handcuffs, reflector jackets, an AP beret, a face mask, bullet-proof jackets and rifle cleaning equipments.

The suspects were driving from Nyayo Stadium but the police could not establish their intended destination.

Nairobi Area Deputy PPO Moses Ombati said they had intelligence report on a group of people planning to commit robberies within the area.

Mr Ombati said the criminals had hired the two vehicles to enable them commit crime.

The bullet-riddled bodies of the two men were later taken to the City Mortuary for identification.

On July 20, the same officers shot dead five armed gangsters and recovered two AK 47 rifles, and a Ceska pistol with a total of 50 rounds of ammunitions, a serviceable police communication gadget and a Toyota NZE vehicle.

Another M16 assault rifle with 20 rounds of ammunition was recovered by Flying Squad officers on February 9, when they shot dead three men along Nairobi's James Gichuru road.