Accra (18 June 2003) - The respite from armed robberies in Accra was interrupted in the early hours of Tuesday 17 June when a gang of armed robbers struck in the suburb of Tesano.

Armed men shot and wounded three people, including a seven-year-old boy and Ghana Review International's distribution manager, but the victims are all responding to treatment, Kofi Boakye, Regional Police Commander, told the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday.

He said police had identified the robbers. They include two men, nicknamed "Ragga" and "Ataa Ayi", who are on the police wanted list.

Mr Boakye said the robbers, who slipped the net during the recent clampdown on armed robbers, are trying to stage a comeback in the belief that the police are no longer on the alert. He said the situation is under control and that the police have initiated action to track down the culprits.

One victim, Robert Siaw, was shot in the chest. Siaw, the distribution manager for Ghana Review International, the London-based publication, told the GNA that he heard someone raise the alarm in the household of the Queenmother of Abeka, whose residence shares a wall with his.

He saw the Queenmother trying to climb over the wall and into his house to escape from the men, he said, and rushed to her rescue. One of the attackers who had followed the Queenmother saw him trying to pull her over the wall and fired a shot at him, wounding him in the chest.

Another victim, Nii Otoo, son of the Queenmother, said at around midnight he heard the dogs in their house barking but then saw nothing strange when he walked out into the compound. As he turned to go back into the house, four armed men jumped over the wall and demanded to know the whereabouts of his mother. A scuffle ensued indoors and one of the thieves shot him in the head. The robbers took away about 14 million cedis and jewellery belonging to his mother.

Meanwhile, investigations reveal that although several phone calls were made to the Tesano police during the incident, the officers on duty repeatedly replied that the victims should "hold on".

Reacting to the news from his London office, GRi's publisher, Nana Otuo Acheampong, expressed shock and disbelief at the incident, which came within days of interviewing Ghana's Inspector General of Police in London. The IGP had told GRi the previous Thursday that armed robbery has abated dramatically in the past few months.

Acheampong said he was awakened by a distressed phone call at dawn from his house in Accra, where Siaw and his family live. "I was told Robert has been shot," he said. Acheampong immediately got on the phone to Accra. A series of frantic calls arranged for the wounded man to be taken first to the 37 Military Hospital, then to the Police Hospital and later Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, where a specialist attended to the victim. He was subsequently discharged and asked to report back in a week.

At the time of going to press, the GRi distribution manager still had roughly 48 pieces of shrapnel embedded in him; the Korle-Bu doctors insist it is too dangerous to take them out at this stage.