Bhubaneswar, Oct. 1: Two motorcycle-borne youths carrying daggers snatched away a gold chain from a woman near Damana Square this morning.

Mamata Sahu, 29, said she was returning home after dropping her three-year-old son at a playschool in Sailashree Vihar, when the incident took place. Mamata was talking to a friend behind the metro apartments near Damana Square when the youths snatched away her chain and escaped.

“I was talking to my friend when a motorcycle stopped beside us. Before we could understand what was happening, the riders held a dagger to my throat and fled with my gold necklace,” said Mamata.

The youth driving the motorcycle was wearing a helmet but the pillion-rider was not. Both of them seemed to be around 25 years, said the victim, who is a home-maker.

Sahu said the chain weighed around 30grams and would cost nearly Rs 1 lakh.

“By the time we could raise an alarm, they had fled from the spot,” she said.

The complainant also alleged that the goons had snatched away a gold chain from another woman before approaching Sahu. However, the other woman is yet to lodge a complaint.

Last year, chain snatchers had spread fear among women after a number of them were targeted, most of them in the morning. The situation was so bad that the police had to advise women not to wear gold necklaces when they stepped out of their houses.

However, the number of such incidents went down after several of these chain-snatchers were arrested and sent to jail.

“We have launched a manhunt to arrest the accused. We will interrogate the known criminals of the city,” said a senior officer of Chandrasekharpur police station.