Woman kidnapped by 8 armed men in foiled robbery bid

A Harare businesswoman and her two children were on Saturday night kidnapped by eight armed men who raided her shop in Dzivaresekwa.

The eight men, who are still at large, were travelling in a pick-up truck when the incident occurred. They attacked the woman while she was locking doors to her shop and bundled her into their car.

Police sources said the woman was in the company of her children and a maid who were also kidnapped.

The robbers drove towards Lake Chivero and along the way they first dumped the maid and a few minutes later, the children.

They drove to the Lake where they demanded the keys to the shop from the woman and later dumped her.

A report was later made to the police.

Investigations carried out so far revealed that the robbers went to the woman's shop early Monday morning in an attempt to steal but their luck ran out when they were confronted by a security guard.

They jumped into their vehicle and sped off.

Police are still investigating the case.

The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) recently said armed robbery and plain robbery cases were on the increase in the country.

In the first six months of this year, 355 armed robbery and 3 772 robbery cases were recorded countrywide up from 265 and 3 474 cases reported within the same period last year.