The Ugandan authorities have been giving details of a major security operation in the capital, Kampala, over the weekend.

They say more than seven hundred and fifty people were detained in a search for weapons and stolen vehicles.

More than two-thirds of them were subsequently released.

The minister of the interior, Nsadhu Basoga, said the operation had been necessary because of a string of robberies in Kampala in recent weeks.

But in a BBC interview he acknowledged that the operation had been criticised for being heavy-handed, and said that in future other methods might be used instead.

Mr Basoga said a total of four machines guns, ten pistols and more than three hundred rounds of ammunition had been recovered during the operation.