Bengaluru, Jul 10 (IANS): The Bengaluru city police launched a crackdown on notorious rowdies across the city during the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.

In a surprise raid and search operation, the police teams from all eight divisions headed by respective division heads conducted raids and search operations on the houses of rowdies across Bengaluru.

These teams so far have raided as many as 800 houses and around 400 rowdies have been picked up for questioning. The raids and questioning will be continued till afternoon, the police said.

During these raids, several lethal weapons - Daggers, knives, swords and machetes were seized besides recovering huge cache of documents pertaining to their illegal activities.

"Rowdies are being questioned and they would be booked under the stringent Goonda Act or Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act (KCOCA) if required," a senior official who is part of the raid in central division, told IANS.

"We are also verifying the seized documents, and cases pertaining to some of them will be referred to the Income Tax department or the Directorate of Enforcement," he added.

The raid and search operations began at 11 p.m. on Friday and it is still continuing. As part of the operations, the rowdies were taken to respective police stations where senior officers gave them stern warning.

"Most of the rowdies lend money to the public at exorbitant interest rates and get their property documents as security. All those documents are being verified and property owners will be summoned for enquiry if required," a senior police officer from another division told IANS.