Eight handbags have been taken from the baskets of bike riders in the past 72 hours, Police warned yesterday.

Seven of the victims have been visitors to the Island.

Police are warning everyone to be extra vigilant.

?Most of these incidents are occurring in the daylight hours,? Police said, urging riders to secure their belongings under the seat of their cycle or in a lockable or covered basket if possible.

On Monday, a a local resident was robbed as she was travelling on North Shore Road in Hamilton Parish.

The bag contained $135 in cash and other personal items.

Police said their suspect is a light-skinned black male of heavy build, approximately five feet seven inches in height with no facial hair. He was wearing a white, open faced helmet, a light coloured t-shirt and had a broken upper front tooth.

Police inquiries are underway.

On Saturday night, a visitor?s handbag was snatched from her livery cycle basket while she was travelling west along South Shore Road in Southampton. The bag contained a return British Airways ticket and other personal items. The woman was riding near the junction of Lighthouse Road when a man, also on a motorcycle, passed her and then turned around and drove up alongside her and grabbed the bag.

The suspect was described as a male wearing a grey shirt with the letters ?NY? on the back. He also wore a grey helmet.

Also on Saturday, a couple from Massachusetts were riding their livery cycle west on Harbour Road, Warwick, when a man, claiming to be a Police officer, demanded they pull over.

The driver was eventually pushed off his cycle, with the suspect flashing an axe at the couple.