The men who were on bicycles, rode up alongside the boy, stole the chain and fled the village in the direction of the backlands, residents said.

The boy, Mark Sukhu of Charlotte Street, Enterprise, was on an errand for his mother at about 11:00 hrs, just about seven lots away from where he lives when the gunmen approached him and demanded that he take off his gold chain valued at $32,000.

The frightened boy said that after seeing the men pull the guns from under their shirts, he dropped the bicycle he was riding and hastened to take off the chain, but before he could have done so, the men snatched it away from him.

Mark's mother, Gaitri Sukhu said she had sent her son with $200 to buy fish from a vendor who was passing in the area.

She recalled that about five minutes after the boy left the home she heard someone screaming and when she looked up the road it was Mark running back home.

"I thought some mini-bus must be jam he down and that's why he run and holler, but when he reach, he tell me two men with gun tek way he gold chain", the mother said.

A resident said that upon seeing what had happened, he immediately telephoned the Vigilance Police Station. Although he made subsequent calls for about half an hour after the incident, there was no response by the Police, he claimed.

Another resident of Enterprise said the two men are usually seen in the village and appear to be on surveillance to committ robberies.

He said the men were recently in the Enterprise Market area acting very suspiciously and had been exposing the guns they were carrying.

On that occasion, he said he called out about 50 of his fellow villagers to keep vigil around the market area just to avert any possible robbery attacks the men might have intended to carry out.

The two, who had become aware of the presence of the villagers, went away, he said.

Meanwhile, a family in the neighbouring village, Non Pariel, who preferred not to be named, said they were robbed of cash and jewellery on Monday evening.

Residents in that area said they suspected that the same two bandits had carried out the attack.

One of the robbery victims at Non Pariel said that around 19:00 hrs on Monday, she was in the house when she heard the dog barking, but did not see anyone outside when she peeped out.

She said she then asked her son to turn on the lights but as he was about to do that, she heard glass being broken.

The woman said that shortly after, she realised it was the louvre glass window that had been smashed and two gunmen forced their way into the house, demanding cash and jewellery.

She said the robbers ordered her husband to lie face down on the floor of the bedroom but he went immediately to a safe in the room and took out about $60,000 in cash and about $80,000 in gold jewellery which he handed over to them.

The bandits then left, she said.