ARMED with a hammer, three boys robbed three taxi drivers in a span of three hours on Sunday morning.

It was a short-lived spree, but they attacked one victim so badly he was warded with stitches on his face.

The teens pulled off all three hold-ups with the same modus operandi: flag down a cab, give the cabby confusing directions and then produce the hammer.

Clementi Police Division officers and two victims gave an account of the robberies at a press conference on Sunday.

At 2.30am, cabby See Boon Cheong, 60, picked up two 16 year olds at Jurong East Street 21.

While he had been asked to go to Toh Tuck, the teens re-directed Mr See around the estate before they stopped at Cheng Soon Garden.

That was when a teen clamped his hands over his eyes. His friend whacked his head with a hammer 'seven or eight times' while shouting 'Money! Money! Money!'

Mr See surrendered his wallet, which had $160.

At 4.25am, the duo, students at a private school, struck again. This time, they had another friend, a 15-year-old school drop-out, with them.

They got into a taxi at a bus-stop along Bukit Batok East Avenue 3 and told the driver to drive to Clementi Central, before re-directing the 50-year-old to a car park at Clementi Avenue 3.

The cabby struggled after one of the teens shouted 'Pa chioh!' or robbery in Hokkien. It is unclear what happened but the teens fled empty-handed.

Cabby No. 3 Mr Fong Peng Weng had seen a message flash on his screen urging drivers to be on the look-out. But he still fell prey.

At Block 207 Jurong East Street 21, one boy throttled his neck while another brandished the hammer.

'They said they wanted my money and not my life. This calmed me down a bit, so I handed over $300 and my mobile phone,' the 52-year-old said.

Read the full story in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.