By RALPH BANWARIE Friday, February 10 2012

A TEACHER, security officer, construction worker and a labourer were arrested for robbing and chopping off the hand of a Sangre Grande taxi driver on Wednesday night. Police reported that at about 11.30 pm, the 28-year-old taxi driver was plying his taxi on Foster Road in Sangre Grande.

Two men entered his car and asked if he was going to Foster Road.

The driver, who police asked us not to identify, replied “yes” and the passengers requested that he drive as they will pay for the trip. While driving his blue-coloured Honda Civic car with the two passengers, the driver saw another car behind his vehicle. The driver said that even when he slowed his car, the other vehicle did not overtake.

One of the passengers then announced a hold-up and ordered the taxi driver to stop his car. The men, armed with knives, ordered the driver out of the driver’s seat and forced him into the back seat. One of the passengers then took control of the car, but it stalled a short distance away. The other car stopped and two men joined the two who were in the taxi driver’s car. The four then attacked the taxi driver with their knives and cutlasses, chopping off the man’s left hand.

The bleeding driver was relieved of cash by the men who then drove off in the other car.

Residents raised an alarm and police were called in. The bleeding driver and the severed hand were taken to the Sangre Grande district hospital where he was treated and remains warded.

Up to press time it was not known if doctors were able to reattach the severed limb.

Quick work by Eastern Division officers led to the suspects being arrested and their getaway car being intercepted and impounded.

The arrested men whose ages range from 20 to 25 are from San Fernando and Princes Town. Cpl Harper of Sangre Grande CID is continuing investigations.