Armed bandits on Friday afternoon attacked Orangestein, East Bank Essequibo greens vendor Ayube Khan and his family making off with an undisclosed sum of cash, the proceeds of the sale of a vehicle.
At around 6.30 pm the man and his wife, Parbattie Singh, were at their residence tending to people who were making purchases at the business. Singh said that she then noticed someone with a handkerchief tied over his face running around a vehicle parked outside. She noticed too that the man pulled out a gun and on seeing this she alerted others around.
The woman said that the other men appeared and one of them demanded that everyone lie on the ground and ran through their pockets taking cash and cell phones. Singh said that she grabbed her daughter and tried to get away but one of the men caught her and started hitting her, demanding to be taken to the money and threatening to shoot her.
She said that she took the gunman and showed him where the money was. The gunmen then escaped with an undisclosed sum of cash and jewellery.
According to reports, the men said that they knew he sold a vehicle two days before and they had come for the proceeds of that sale. They were suspected to have escaped by boat.