Hijackers attack two mothers with children

Police officers at the intersection of Cannon Avenue and Kenilworth Road,Overport, where hijackers abandoned a VW Polo after shooting the driver. Picture: Zainul Aberdeen Dawood

Police officers at the intersection of Cannon Avenue and Kenilworth Road,Overport, where hijackers abandoned a VW Polo after shooting the driver. Picture: Zainul Aberdeen Dawood

Published May 4, 2012

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A mother was shot and another pistol-whipped as they tried to fight off hijackers who wanted to drive off with their children in Sherwood, Durban.

KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman Colonel Jay Naicker, said Fernaaz Mohamed, 38, was in a critical condition after she was shot in both legs on Thursday.

A second woman, who was targeted an hour later, sustained gashes to her head and was admitted to hospital. Police declined to reveal her name.

Mohamed’s eight-year-old son, who is a special needs child and cannot speak, had been severely traumatised by the incident, his grandmother Banu Moosa, said on Friday morning.

Moosa said her daughter had left home with her son just after midday to fetch her grand-daughter from the Sherwood Islamic School.

“Before she went to school, she stopped at her sister’s home in Cannon Avenue, Overport.”

As she jumped out of the car, she saw a gunman behind her and two others in the car with her son, Moosa said.

“The hijacker demanded the car keys from Fernaaz. But she refused to hand them over until they let her son go. The hijacker assaulted her and grabbed the keys.”

Mohamed fought back and jumped into the back seat of the car to pull her son out, Moosa said.

Four shots were fired and Mohamed was hit twice.

“Despite her wounds she pulled my grandson to safety. The hijackers then drove off.”

She said her daughter was in the intensive care unit and doctors had been unable to remove the bullet on Thursday night.

The boy, she said, was shaken and couldn’t sleep. He was expected to go for trauma counselling on Friday.

A police source said the hijackers drove the car a short distance before crashing it at the end of Cannon Avenue and fleeing.

The source said it is believed that the same hijackers struck about an hour later outside Sherwood Primary School in Sandringham Road.

“A woman was sitting in a Mercedes-Benz waiting for her daughter to finish school.

“The child had just jumped into the vehicle when the hijackers held the mother at gunpoint.”

The woman pleaded with them to take the car and let her child go, but they refused, the source said.

“She fought back and was badly assaulted and pistol-whipped. But she managed to pull her daughter out of the car. The hijackers then drove off.”

The woman was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was treated for shock and several gashes to her head.

No arrests had been made and Sydenham police are investigating. - Daily News

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