By Alva Solomon

A robber who attacked a University of Guyana student on Wednesday evening suffered reversed fortunes after he was forced to abandon his bicycle during a scuffle with the student. According to reports, the third year student was walking along the University Of Guyana Road from the Turkeyen Campus, heading for the Railway Embankment to catch a bus.

As he walked past First Street Cummings Lodge, the burly bandit rode up on a bicycle and demanded his belongings.

A relative of the traumatised young man told the Guyana Chronicle that the bandit placed an object at the young man’s right side, and demanded his mobile phone.

Reports are that the young man grabbed the object which turned out to be a plastic gun, and in the process, drew a small knife he had on his person.

He then attacked the robber who dropped his bicycle and bolted from the scene.

The incident created a traffic build-up at the location as persons ran to the student’s assistance.

Reports are that the robber returned to the scene with a piece of wood but he was chased from the area by persons who came to the student’s rescue.

The student then slashed the tires of the customised bicycle, stopped a taxi and headed home with the two-wheeler in the car’s trunk.

Relatives reported that while the mobile phone is not as expensive as the bicycle, the young man was concerned about personal information he had stored on the phone’s SIM card.

A report of the incident was expected to be made to the police yesterday.

In recent months there has been an upsurge in criminal activities. The authorities have since launched a countrywide operation, code-named “Operation Dragnet”, which is aimed at combating the crime situation as well as protecting the country’s borders and port-of-entries to prevent acts of terrorism.