Suspected robber shot dead at Mall in Manila

Chaos broke out at an upscale Makati City shopping mall yesterday when security personnel battled a group of gunmen trying to rob a watch store. One suspected robber was killed while a mall employee was injured, reports said, after private security guards and policemen fought off a group of around 11 armed men wearing black police uniform. They attempted to rob a shop selling Rolex watches at the Greenbelt 5 mall near the Ayala business district.

“We just saw some armed men they were wearing bomb squad uniform… and they started hammering the showcases. And from there, I and some customers went inside the stockroom and afterwards we heard gunshots for about five minutes,” one witness, a manager of a nearby establishment, said in an interview aired by dzBB radio station.

Ricky Carandang, a reporter for ABS-CBN, who personally witnessed the incident, said he was in the vicinity of Greenbelt 5 around noon when he saw people fleeing from the direction where the gunshots where coming. The group that arrived in police bomb squad uniform claimed to be responding to a call about the presence of a bomb inside the mall.

The officials said when the mall’s security guards questioned the presence of the armed men they were shot at. The armed men then proceeded to the Rolex shop and ransacked its display cases. By 12:30pm, the Special Weapons and Tactics Unit of Taguig City arrived at the scene and more shooting ensued as authorities cordoned off the area. A report by ABS-CBN News said the robbers were able escape via the basement parking using a car. Southern Metro Manila police chief Senior Superintendent Petro Calungsod said they are hot on the trail of the suspects who are believed to be members of the Alvin Flores Gang.