COIMBATORE: Five persons were arrested and a pair of tusks was seized from them in Mettupalayam near Coimbatore.

Acting on a tip, a team of forest department staff from Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) carried out a search at a house in Siraj Nagar on Wednesday. They then seized a pair of tusks and arrested five persons identified as Maideen, 47, Ravi, 47, Veeran alias Andisamy, 47, Krishna Kumar, 36 and Kumar, 45, while one more accused is on the run and a search is on to nab him.

Of them, Maideen is from Mettupalayam and others hail from Sathyamangalam. The accused persons were produced before a court in Mettupalayam and remanded to judicial custody to be lodged in Coimbatore Central Prison. This incident comes a few days after two pairs of tusks from five persons were seized by the forest department in Mettur in Salem.