A group of six gunmen yesterday morning opened fire on the ranks of a mobile patrol just over the Railway Embankment at Friendship, East Coast Demerara (ECD).

The ranks were at the time responding to a report of the larceny of six cows which had been made earlier at the Vigilance Police Station by a resident of Strathspey, ECD.

A police release issued yesterday did not say if ranks had returned fire.

Reports are that around 11.15 am the ranks were proceeding south along the Friendship Road when in the vicinity of the Pond Dam area, they came under fire from the six men who were armed with AK-47 rifles and shotguns.

The release said that after discharging the rounds at the ranks, the armed men ran further south into the canefields.

The ranks who managed to escape uninjured called for back up, and members of a Tactical Services Unit (TSU) patrol that was on the East Coast responded.

However despite efforts the armed men could not be located.

“The Guyana Police Force wishes to express its concern that even when ranks are responding to routine reports in the southern section of Buxton, the ranks cannot proceed in a normal manner because of the danger of being engaged by armed men hiding out in the backlands of Buxton,” the release said.