Jamshedpur, Oct. 24: Seven persons went on a looting spree last night in Adityapur and decamped with valuables worth over Rs 5 lakh by striking at seven shops.

The burglars fled with ornaments, precious stones and cash worth Rs 3 lakh from two jewellery shops — Shekhar Jewellers and Shree Laxmi Jewellers. They also struck at a motor garage, a general store, a medicine store, a doctor’s clinic and an electrical appliance maintenance workshop, all under Adityapur police station.

According to residents of the nearby colony, both the jewellery shops are on the Adityapur-Kandra Main road. In the festive season, the shops were doing brisk business and had increased their stock to meet the demand. So they beca me the target, said residents.

A few days before Diwali, some burglars had attempted to break into the two shops, but failed, probably due to the movement of people till late in the night during Diwali and Dhanteras.

“As everyone was tired after celebrating Diwali, the thieves could get away. They broke more than 20 locks put on the shutters of the seven shops but no one heard the noise,” said Ranjeet Pradhan, a resident of the area.

Police sources revealed that the theft took place some time in the wee hours because the last patrolling team noticed nothing unusual while crossing the area around 2 am.

“According to our estimate, the crime was committed between 2 am and 4 am ,” said a source.

Adityapur police station in-charge R. Dayal said they had received written complaint from the shop owners and had started investigations: “We’re conducting raids based on the findings of past thefts in the locality and will nab the criminals soon.”