RAWALPINDI, Jan 18: Three gunmen on Wednesday robbed a jeweller's workshop of over Rs1.6 million gold and silver, police said.

The workshop was located adjacent to Benazir Bhutto Road jewellery market. However, area people captured one of the fleeing robbers after a brief chase and handed him over to police.

According to witnesses, three robbers entered Al-Noor Jewellers' workshop and held the workers at gunpoint.

Ikram Chohan, the owner of Al-Noor Jewellers said: 'It looked as if they would kill all of the five workers, but they simply tied their arms and gagged their mouth with a cloth. The robbers tried to open the locker containing jewellery but could not open it.

He said the robbers robbed 300gms of gold jewellery worth Rs1.5 million and 16kg of silver valuing Rs150,000.

Ikram said one of the hostages managed to unfasten himself soon after the robbers fled and made hue and cry which caught the attention of other people from the surrounding areas. Af ter a brief chase, people succeeded in capturing one of the robbers.

'Police are interrogating the suspect at the moment but it is yet to be ascertained whether he was involved in the robbery or not,' Inspector Abdul Sattar Khan who is leading the investigation told Dawn.

In another incident, four robbers entered a house in Satellite Town and held its inmates hostage.

Ehsan Abbas, the robbery victim, said in his complaint that the robbers took the inmates' hostage and forced them to give up cash and gold ornaments.

The culprits snatched Rs97,000 in cash, gold ornaments whose value is yet to be estimated and two cellphones and later escaped after locking the family in a room.