Police shoot dead six suspected thugs in Mlolongo area off Mombasa Road

Six suspected thugs were shot dead by police inside a factory that they had broken into, vandalized property and tried to steal in Mlolongo area along Mombasa road, Nairobi.

Police say the men had broken into African Cotton Company when an alarm was raised and that they recovered a laptop, a desktop computer, crude weapons and CCTV cameras.

According to police, about 15 men had drilled and broken a wall on the tissue paper making company before getting in at about midnight on Tuesday.

They then vandalized the CCTV cameras there to avoid being detected before moving into offices where they broke in and started to ransack drawers.

It was then that an alarm was raised alerting police who rushed there and killed six of them.

“The other accomplices managed to escape on foot in the confusion but we recovered some of the stolen property,” said a police officer who was present.

The number of suspects is among the highest to be killed by police in a single incident in the city in the recent past in the war on armed robbery.

Police say the men refused to heed their order to surrender and tried to escape on foot prompting the shooting.

The bodies were later moved to the mortuary. Officials said the all victims looked young.

Police are looking for a gang that raided a supermarket in Kiambiu slums and robbed attendants of their valuables and cash on Tuesday night.

The gang of four armed with pistols went there posing as customers before they ordered those present and grabbed cash and valuables.

The attack is the second to happen in two days in the area and police seem overwhelmed. Police say they are following leads on the whereabouts of the gang that seems organized.