THE POLICE in Bolgatanga are holding 15 persons in their custody, in connection with a highway robbery on the Tumu-Navrongo road on Saturday.

The 15 suspects including four juveniles were picked up from a Fulani settlement in the Sissala East District, shortly after an armed robbery incident around the settlement.

On Saturday morning, armed robbers attacked a Metro Mass Transit bus on which students of St. Francis Girls Senior High School were on board, near the Sissile Bridge in the Sissala East district.

The robbers stole money and mobile phones and other belongings, and caned passengers who did not have anything substantial.

The girls, numbering about 50, were returning to the Upper East region from holidays in Jirapa in the Upper West region when the robbers attacked them.

According to them, the robbers, who were wielding deadly weapons, also assaulted the driver and conductor, after which they collected the money on the conductor.

Some of the girls who came to the police station to assist in the investigation, after they heard the about the arrest of the robbers, told DAILY GUIDE that it was a horrifying experience.

The girls were supposed to have left Jirapa for Bolgatanga on August 5, 2011 but they could not because their bus broke down.

The girls who spoke to DAILY GUIDE commended the Member of Parliament for Sissala West, Haruna Bayirga, for offering to accommodate all of them in his house on August 5.

They said he also arranged for a bus which enabled them to continue the journey on Saturday, August 6.

They confirmed that there were some juveniles among the armed robbers.

The 15 suspects are likely to be paraded today at the regional police headquarters for identification, after which the police will officially brief journalists on the arrest.