Angul: Talcher police on Thursday busted an inter-district gang of criminals by arresting five persons.

The gang is said to be involved in illegal activities in various coalmines in the coalfield area. The police recovered two pistols, two magazines, eight live ammunition and three caved daggers from them. Two motor cycles were also seized.

The arrested are Musaraf Khan, 19, Rudranarayan Pradhan, 27, Abdul Wahid, 19, Md Injemam, 26, and Md Chand, 19. Two of them are from Dhenkanal district, while three others are from Dargha Bazaar and Kadam Rasul of Cuttack city. Three other members of the gang are still at large.

The gang was planning to eliminate another gang who are their rivals in diesel theft in the Talcher coalfield area. They had already taken Rs 5 lakh from a person to kill the members of the rival gang.

Angul police superintendent Mitrabhanu Mahapatara said they came to know about the existence of the gang when it registered a case on June 28 regarding a diesel theft case that took place at the Bhubaneswari open cast project.

"There was a firing by five masked men in the mine and hundreds of litres of diesel was stolen from the area. Upon investigation, we came to know that organised criminal gangs were operating in the area. We proceeded on the clue and raided various parts of the state. Three gangsters were nabbed from Cuttack."