Kathmandu, May 28:

An armed group locked staffers of a Bouddha-based office for hours this afternoon and decamped with Rs 98,000, two tolas of gold ornaments and mobile phone sets.

According to police, the group broke into the Buddha Remittance, pointed pistols at staffers, locked them in a room and seized their cell phones.

The group beat a security guard of the office and fled with the cash and property, police said.

“We got information about the incident at about 3 pm,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) at the Metropolitan Police Circle, Bouddha, Mahesh Bikram Shah.

The staffers were holed up in the room, he said, adding that there were three staffers in the office when the incident took place.

The group came when Rajesh Lama, proprietor of the money exchange firm, had gone to a bank to withdraw money.

The staffers could not give us exact descriptions of the looters, the police official said.