Colombia hunts underwear robbers

Police in Colombia are searching for members of a gang who target women and steal their underwear in public.

A succession of women, mainly young women and students, have been attacked in the western city of Pereira, often at bus stops early in the morning.

The gang has become known across the city as the "knicker robbers". They do not usually hurt their victims, instead demanding only underwear and valuables.

Police in Pereira have described the gang as "sexual maniacs".

The attackers often strike as women wait at bus stops between the hours of 0500 and 0700, police said.

On other occasions they wait for their victims to leave work or a university campus later in the day.

Carlos Felipe Cordoba, a spokesman for the governor of Pereira, told Colombian media that police and other local and intelligence groups were working to identify and catch the gang.

Their "inexplicable" conduct, he said, was already being analysed by psychologists and sexual experts.