Four arrested in Georgia over railway copper cable theft

Georgian police have arrested four people on suspicion of stealing approximately 300 metres of copper cable from a railway line in the country's central Shida Kartli region, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.

Investigators alleged that the suspects cut and stole the cable from a railway line near a village in Gori municipality.

Police detained the four individuals while they were loading the allegedly stolen cable into a vehicle, the ministry said.

Officers seized the copper cable, which the Interior Ministry said belongs to Georgian Railway, as evidence.

The crime carries a maximum prison sentence of up to seven years if convicted, the ministry said.