Durban - Nurses and a security guard were held up by brazen robbers at the St Augustines Hospital in Glenwood on Wednesday.
The robbers arrived at one of the main hospital entrances and walked into the hospital undetected just after 3 am.
The robbers held up three staff members and took cellphones from their handbags. They also assaulted and held up the security guard on duty.
A source said he found it strange that they targetted the surgical ward which was a long walk into the interior of the hospital. Police at the scene said it was a complicated investigation and they were looking at the possibility of more than one crime scene in the hospital.
A picture of a damaged door with a small hole on it and another door to surgical ward 1 with a chunk of the glass smashed in have been circulating on social media. It is unclear if the robbers shot the window on the door or smashed it using an object. Police were tightly lipped about this and would not reveal what had happened.
Heather Hayward Rorick, Bulwer Safety and Urban Regeneration Forum spokesperson, said one of the guards was severely assaulted by the robbers but details on the actual robbery are still sketchy. She said police detectives were still piecing together what had happened.
"It is easy pickings for criminals. It is also shocking that robbers can attack places where people come for medical treatment. Nurses are there to help people and should not be attacked in such a manner. They dont need guns to be waved in their faces. They deal with the frail and injured," she said.
The St Augustines Hospital Netcare hospital group had not responded to a media query at the time of going to print.
Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Thulani Zwane said a case of robbery was opened at Umbilo police station.
In July four men, at least one of them armed, stormed the Life Westville Hospital holding up the security guards, staff member and a patient waiting to be admitted before robbing them and stealing two televisions.