Accountants robbed in Alotau

RASKOLS fired four shots at two accountants, closely missing one of them, during a robbery near Alotau on Tuesday.
On seeing the raskols aiming their rifles at them, one of the accountants moved to the right and suffered only a graze on the left arm.
After relieving them of their wallets and other personal items, the raskols demanded to know where the cash was, apparently aware that the two had in their possession K5000.
“I pointed to a backpack in the vehicle and they drove off with everything,” one of the accountants told The National yesterday.
Also in the vehicle was about K3000 worth of foodstuffs that the two Filipinos had bought in Alotau for their colleagues at a sawmill in Gamandoudou.
The 16 raskols were masked and at least seven of them were armed with rifles and the others had bushknives. Police believe the suspects were the same that had robbed the Tawali Resort.
The robbery occurred about 60km from Alotau.
“It was lucky I moved to my right when I saw the raskols aiming their rifles at us,” the accountant grazed on the arm said.
All four shots hit the vehicle.
One of the raskols placed his rifle barrel against the hip of one of the one of the accountants, threatening to shoot if he did not get out of the vehicle quickly.
The two victims had earlier visited Alotau to carry out some business transactions and buy foodstuffs.
They were just a few kilometres from their sawmill when they ran into the ambush at about 2pm.
The vehicle was recovered near a beach about five hours later.
On Thursday night, 16 armed suspects held up 24 tourists at the Tawali Resort which is located on an island less than an hour away from Alotau.
The police were alerted while the robbery was going on but took about three hours to reach the resort, a resort staff said.