MANJUNG: Twenty minutes was all it took for the police to arrest three men who robbed a goldsmith shop in Sitiawan on Friday.

After a high-speed chase and an exchange of gunfire, three of the four robbers were nabbed.

The fourth, the mastermind, was arrested several hours later.

Acting district police chief Deputy Superintendent Ahmad Rabawi Abd Jamil said the four men, two of whom were armed with pistols and a third with a parang, entered the goldsmith in a hypermarket at 3.15pm.

They fired several warning shots before dumping several trays of jewellery worth RM300,000 into a bag.
Ahmad Rabawi said two patrol car officers confronted the men, two Vietnamese and two locals.

"They rode off in tow motorcycles. The officers gave chase and an exchange of fire took place.

"After five minutes, the suspects reached a dead end in Taman Pegawai 2, where they abandoned their motorcycles and continued on foot into a rubber estate."

He said the shoot-out continued in the rubber estate.

"Eventually, three of them were arrested. Upon questioning, they led us to the arrest of the fourth man in Lekir."

Most of the jewellery had been recovered.