Nanshan police have rounded up a gang of eight people suspected of posing as policemen to commit robberies, the district's public security bureau announced Thursday.

The people are suspected of having committed eight robberies in Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen in June. The police seized three fake police identity cards, one vehicle, and some boots earlier this month.

A man surnamed Tan reported to Nanshan police June 25 that he was taken to a hotel in Bao'an by four people posing as policemen the day before to "assist in an investigation." The "police" took away Tan's mobile phone, six bankcards, and other belongings, and forced him to tell them the passwords for the bankcards.

They four men then asked Tan to go to a man surnamed Wang at the criminal investigation section of Bao'an's public security bureau the following day to collect his belongings.

The next day, Tan found that 181,500 yuan (US$22,700) had been withdrawn from his bank accounts. He also found that there was no criminal investigation section in the Bao'an bureau.

After two weeks of investigation, Nanshan police received information that the gang might gather in a hotel in Bao'an on July 12 and prepare for another robbery. A plainclothes policeman and policewoman checked into the hotel. They found that several people gathering in the hotel matched the descriptions of the sham police.

When the real policeman shouted "Don't move, we are police," one suspect even called back desperately: "We are police too." All the five suspects were captured by 9 p.m.

Two other suspects were also caught that night in the hotel and another one was caught July 14 in Futian District.

The suspects confessed during interrogation they had robbed money and goods worth more than 600,000 yuan in total in eight robberies in Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen in the past month.

Editor: Yan