Durban - Six robbers were shot dead by police near the small KwaZulu-Natal settlement of Seven Oaks barely hours after they had staged a robbery 200 kilometres away in Newcastle.
Police spokesman Major Thulani Zwane, speaking from the scene, said that the robbers, who were traveling in four cars, were confronted by police officers outside Seven Oaks, which is about 20 kilometres south of Greytown.
A shoot-out ensued, in which six robbers were killed and three were wounded. No police officers were injured in the fire fight.
Robbers in two of the cars managed to escape and one of the cars was later found abandoned near Pinetown. The fourth car has not been located.
The officers who cornered the robbers were from the Pietermaritzburg Flying Squad, the Crime Intelligence Unit in Pietermaritzburg, the police’s Task Force and the Pietermaritzburg K9 unit.
Zwane said that one AK47 assault rifle, two R5 assault rifles and two handguns had been recovered from the scene.
Zwane said it was not clear how many people were in the other two cars that managed to get away.
Zwane said that police believed the gang were involved in a spate of business robberies and possibly responsible for the death of at least one police officer. He could not provide further details, except to say that the injured gang members had been taken to hospital under police guard.
June Litterick, editor of the Greytown Gazette, said that police had closed off the R33 where the shoot-out had occurred.
“You can’t get anywhere near there. They have closed off the road from both sides,” she said.
Litterick said that she was not aware of any recent business robberies in Greytown.
“I suppose they thought this was a good escape route,” she said.
African News Agency
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