A busload of 40 merchants from Thessaloniki traveling to Istanbul were held up by armed robbers outside Xanthi in the first hours of Monday, police said.

They said that two men flagged down the bus and, wielding a hand grenade, forced the driver to take the bus to a remote spot where two more accomplices armed with Kalashnikov rifles and with their faces covered also boarded the bus.

The gunmen took cash and jewelry from the passengers, and escaped the scene in a small truck.

The incident took place at 1:40 a.m.

The merchants were giving statements to the Xanthi security police.