The spectre of chain-snatching returned to haunt women in the City. The bike-borne chain-snatchers targeted as many as four women in western part of Bengaluru on Friday.

The four incidents were reported in Kamakshipalya, Vijayanagar, Chandra Layout and Jnanabharathi police limits in a span of about two-and-half-hours.

The police suspected the involvement of one gang in all the four incidents and constituted a team to trace the miscreants, said the police.

In all the four cases, the miscreants pretended to ask for an address and committed the crime, the police said.

6:50 am, Kamakshipalya
Two unidentified men on a black Pulsar approached Nagarathna (52), who was putting rangoli in front of her house at Kamakshipalya. They pretended to ask her about an address in the locality.

One of them snatched her 60-gram gold chain when she was showing the direction and the duo fled from the spot after pushing her to the ground, said the police.

7 am, SVG Nagar
Two bike-borne miscreants stopped Lakshmamma (62), who was returning home after buying milk, and asked her the address of a location. One of them engaged her in  conversation while the other snatched her 70-gram gold chain. The duo sped off along with the chain. The incident took place at SVG Nagar in Moodalapalya in Vijayanagar police station limits, added the police.

7:45 am, Chandra Layout
In a similar incident in Chandra Layout, two unknown men approached Tenmouli (49), who was drawing rangoli in front of her house near Siddaganga School, and asked her about some address. She said that she did not know as the two spoke Hindi. Just then, the pillion rider snatcher her 55-gram gold chain and the two vanished within seconds.

8:15 am, Jnanabharathi
In Jnanajyothinagar under Jnanabharathi police station limits, the miscreants relieved Uma of her 40-gram gold  chain in a similar fashion. The jurisdictional police have registered cases and investigations are on.