Tzaneen - Intervention by police officers from the Tzaneen and Ritavi police stations might well have prevented two murders and a rape, and led to the recovery of a Mercedes Benz hijacked in Murudjie village in the Bolobedu policing area, Limpopo police said on Saturday.
An unknown number of men accosted a man as he arrived at his driveway gate on Friday night, and then hijacked and kidnapped him, Lt-Col Moatshe Ngoepe said.
"They then drove with him to [the] Maake policing area in Lenyenye where they also kidnapped his girlfriend."
Police were patrolling in the vicinity and the suspects, when noting the patrol van, sped off towards Lephephani village in the Ritavi policing precinct, with both victims in the car.
"Another patrol van was at hand to block the route of the fleeing suspects.
They then stopped, jumped out, and fled on foot into the nearby bushes, leaving the victims in the car.
This co-ordination by the police in [the] Tzaneen cluster solved a carjacking incident in possibly a record time and prevented a possible rape or murder," Ngoepe said.
Limpopo police commissioner Lt-Gen Nneke Ledwaba commended the officers involved.
The police investigations and tracing of the suspects were continuing and anyone with information about the incident should please contact Lt-Col Cecil Machani on 082-451-7181, or the nearest police station or the crime stop number 08600-10111 or the crime line SMS 32211.