Police in Mombasa County shot dead two machete-wielding suspected gang members at Masjid Mzungu Mchafu, near Shelly Beach in Likoni, on Sunday afternoon.

The two men were in a group of three but one managed to escape the police dragnet.

Likoni divisional police commander (OCPD) Joseph Karanja said the gang is part of a group suspected to have relocated from Kisauni to carry out crimes.

According to a police report seen by Nation, residents alerted the police about young men terrorising members of the public at Emmaus.

The suspects, who were spotted in a house in Likoni, reportedly defied a police order to surrender.

"Police followed them and caught up with them at the said area. They were challenged to surrender but they charged at the officer with a Maasai sword and a modified military dagger," read the report.

It was then that the police officers fired at the suspects.

Crime cases rising

After the incident, the Likoni Sub-county police commander, DCI officer and OCS, alongside officers at the Shelly Beach Police Station, rushed to the scene to take necessary action. The bodies were taken to Coast General Hospital Mortuary.

Read: Witnesses: Five robbery suspects had surrendered, but police shot them dead anyway

Cases of crime have been in the rise in Mombasa County.

In March,  police shot dead five suspected gangsters in Bombolulu after residents reported suspicious activities.

They defied police orders to surrender and opened fire.

The police had raided their house in Nyali Sub-county and retrieved an AK 47 assault rifle with several bullets, mobile phones suspected to have been stolen and a motorcycle believed to have been used to commit crimes.

Early in June, a businessman died after his car was sprayed with bullets near the Changamwe roundabout, exactly one month after a similar incident near the same spot.

In the latter incident, three men died after the vehicle they were in was sprayed with bullets.

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