All six were locked inside a room. The assailants loaded trucks with the copperwire and fled the spot. A case has been registered at the Anand Vihar police station under section 458/380/34 of the Indian Penal Code.

The east Delhi police has not yet arrested any of the accused. According to DCP (east) Balaji Srivastav, ``As the main entrance was closed, the assailants scaled the boundary walls of the factory which were not very high. Once inside, they could easily steal the copper wire as the shutter of the factory was open.''

The owner of the factory reportedly claims that it was open because there was some construction work going on inside. East Delhi police claim that as the area is about 1 km away from the Ghaziabad border, the factory owners had been asked to build a gate at the entrance to the area. However, no such gate had been constructed.

This is the second major robbery in east Delhi this fortnight. Only 12 days ago, twenty youths robbed electronic goods worth Rs 10 lakh from a Videocon showroom in Jagatpuri area in east Delhi. The assailants had decamped with 25 colour televisions, five refrigerators and six automatic washing machines. However, police believes that the two robberies are not linked and there are two different gangs involved.

``The gang involved in the Jagatpuri dacoity spoke with a Haraynvi accent whereas the ones in the Anand Vihar dacoity had a distinct UP accent,'' DCP Srivastav told Express Newsline.