The robbery scare this morning that precipitated a shutdown of the biggest shopping mall in Port Moresby was based on a tip-off.
That’s according to the assistant general manager for Vision City Anderson Ting was based on a tip off received by their security staff.
Ting says that two suspects were spotted at the main shopping mart which was why the guards had to move in and shut down the mall in order to properly assess the situation.
He says that the two men were in the store with the first lot of shoppers but were quickly spotted by guards who tried to contain the store and move in to apprehend the men.
However in the commotion, the two were lost in the crowd as people were moved out in the shut down of the mall between 8:30am and 9am.
Police were called in and with the help of the guards at the mall in clearing out the site as fears rose that the two suspects were still in the mall.
Guards and police had to also manually check all the staff that were still left in the mall to ensure that they were all checked out.
Ting says that the main mart is still closed until it can be cleared by security staff to ensure that it is safe to be opened up to customers.
Police are meeting with the mall security staff to deal with the incident.