PATNA: In a daring incident, unidentified armed criminals looted the police patrol jeep of Piprahi police station in Sheohar district in the wee hours of Friday. The criminals also opened fire at and hurled crude bombs on the patrolling team before looting the vehicle.However, after a massive hunt for almost an hour, the looted jeep was recovered from Pitaujia village under the Runnisaidpur police station area in the neighbouring Sitamarhi district Sheohar SP Santosh Kumar said the incident happened when the police team signalled an SUV to stop. “The policemen asked those sitting in the SUV to come out. One of the policemen had taken out the SUV’s key,” Kumar said and added the criminals suddenly opened fire, hurled three crude bombs on the policemen before driving the jeep which had its key inside.Sources said altogether five criminals, all carrying small firearms, were spotted fleeing after abandoning the jeep at Pitaujia. “The looted vehicle got stuck in a ditch at a sharp turn on the village road. The criminals abandoned it. Three of the five criminals then looted a villager’s bike there at gunpoint and fled from the spot while rest two escaped on foot,” sources said.“Criminals had taken out the wireless set from the jeep. It was later found from a bag they had dropped while fleeing. The bag also contained two live crude bombs,” sources said.They said a bomb detection and disposal squad (BDDS) from Muzaffarpur reached the spot and diffused the bombs. They said the police vehicle’s windscreen was smashed and its front side was damaged. “The criminals perhaps had dashed against some vehicles while fleeing,” sources said.

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