Phoenix - It was 15 minutes of sheer terror.
This is how a shopper described a violent encounter with a heavily armed gang of about 20 robbers at a supermarket at the Whitehouse shopping complex in Phoenix.
The robbers escaped with an undisclosed sum of money contained in cash boxes on Thursday morning.
Three independent sources who were in the supermarket said at the time that the robbers had carried a pick into the premises to break the safe but they did not use the tool because a manager had given them the keys to the safe.
The sources said the robbers’ sole focus was the money in the cash boxes, the safe and the tills.
Two civilians, a woman and a man, who were in separate vehicles, were shot at by the robbers.
The woman sustained a gunshot wound to her hand and the man was shot three times in his legs.
Pat Moodley, 64, a retired manager at a pet products firm, said one of the robbers, whose face was covered with a balaclava, had pointed an AK47 at him as he (Moodley) made his way out of the store with his trolley, and had jumped into Moodley's vehicle.
“The robber said ‘switch off, switch off’ as I was about to put the key into the ignition. He said if I remained quiet, nothing would happen, but if I moved I would be killed. Simultaneously, other robbers did the same to other shoppers who went to their vehicles or had just arrived in the parking lot. It was a frightening and well co-ordinated robbery.”
A store employee, Savathree Moodley, said she broke her wrist when she slipped and fell during the pandemonium.
“I was running towards the back of the supermarket when I fell. I am in pain.
“I was put on drips at the Mount Edgecombe Hospital on Thursday and I am going there now again,” she said on Tuesday.
Themba Zulu said he sustained a gunshot wound to his shoulder as he tried to jump off a truck which was delivering a consignment of goods to the supermarket.
“The truck was parked in the complex. I don’t know whether the robbers fired wildly or intentionally. I was treated at the clinic in Phoenix.”
Vicky Januk, the owner of Accimed, whose ambulance transported Moodley and Zulu for treatment, said it was a chaotic scene.
The owners of the supermarket could not be reached for comment.
Police are still searching for the robbers.
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