Cape Town - A Hout Bay Community Crime Prevention organisation has slammed the latest attack on paramedics in Hangberg following the stoning of ER24 medics by protesting residents while they were attending to the rescue of an injured 8-year-old boy.
ER24 emergency medical staff have become the latest victims of ongoing attacks on emergency practitioners while responding to incidents in local communities.
This after ER24 paramedics were violently assaulted by residents in Hangberg while trying to transport the injured child to a nearby hospital.
ER24 spokesperson Russel Meiring said: “On Wednesday night, ER24 medics responded to the scene of a car accident, where an 8-year-old boy had been struck by a light motor vehicle at the East Fort and Oude Skip intersection.
“Paramedics found he had sustained moderate injuries. They treated and loaded him into an ambulance for transportation to a nearby hospital. As the ambulance was leaving, community members began throwing rocks at the emergency vehicles, smashing the rear window of the ambulance and damaging a security vehicle.
“Fortunately, neither the patient nor the ER24 medics sustained any injuries. ER24 condemns attacks against emergency services and urges the public to report such incidents to the relevant authorities,” said Meiring.
Community Crime Prevention operational manager JJ de Villiers said: “We condemn the act of violence perpetrated against paramedics in Hangberg last night. It is disappointing to have yet another incident like this occur in our community. We appeal to residents to band together against such criminality; incidents like these only take us back, and not forward.”
In other local communities, the police’s festive season crime prevention operations are making headway.
During the week various SAPS units arrested several suspects for crimes ranging from drugs, alcohol possession to hijacking, murder and the possession of illegal firearms and ammunition.
In Harare, police arrested and detained two suspects for the possession of illegal firearms and ammunition.
Police spokesperson Dawood Suliman said: “Police arrested two suspects aged 36 and 46 in Vuka Street, Harare, on Wednesday morning. The suspects were apprehended with two firearms and ammunition.”