Operatives of the Edo State police command have arrested three armed robbery suspects while they were trying to escape with stolen vehicles.

The police also rescued five out of the eight persons kidnapped on the Benin-Auchi road.

The suspects, Akhere Akhigbe, Anthony Joseph and Oshowe Zakari, were said to have snatched a Toyota Corolla and a Toyota Highlander at gunpoint at Ekpoma but were arrested while driving out of the town.

Speaking on the incident, the spokesperson of the state police command, Kongtons Bello, said the suspects were arrested following an intelligence report.

Bello said the rescued victims were kidnapped along Ubiaja-Ewohimi road when hoodlums suspected to be kidnappers intercepted a Toyota Sienna vehicle and kidnapped eight passengers of the vehicle.

He said the hoodlums, on sighting the team of police operatives, engaged them in a gun battle, but abandoned five of their victims unhurt, including the driver, but escaped with three others into the bush.