Port Elizabeth - Two alleged armed robbers, aged 20 and 21, were wounded when they attempted to strangle and rob an e-hailing taxi driver in Port Elizabeth, and were arrested a short while later at a local hospital, the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the Eastern Cape said on Sunday.
It was alleged that at about 7.45pm on Saturday night, a 47-year-old e-hailing taxi driver went to an address in Alexander Road in Newton Park in Port Elizabeth to pick up an alleged client, Colonel Priscilla Naidu said in a statement.
When he stopped at the given address, two men got into the back seat of the car. One of the men tried to strangle the taxi driver with a piece of rope from the back seat of the car. The taxi driver fought back and the suspect then fired a shot through the seat, hitting the taxi driver in the shoulder. The taxi driver retaliated by firing back at the suspects, who got out of the car and ran away.
While police officers were still carrying out investigations at the scene of the shooting, they received information that two men with gunshot wounds were at a local hospital. The two suspects, one with a gunshot wound in his chest and the other with a gunshot wound in his arm, were subsequently arrested. Both suspects were from Shauderville in Port Elizabeth.
They were expected to appear in court soon on charges of attempted robbery and attempted murder, Naidu said.