Johannesburg - City of Johannesburg’s Emergency Management Services (EMS) paramedics were robbed at gunpoint while busy assisting a patient in the early hours of Thursday.
According to EMS spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi, the ambulance crew based at Dobsonville Fire Station was attending to a patient when they were accosted by two men who held them at gunpoint and robbed them of their belongings.
Mulaudzi said that the paramedics had to seek assistance in the area after the robbers fled the scene with the ambulance keys.
He added that the ambulance crew were not harmed and that they, together with the patient, were picked up by a motorist and taken to the nearest safe place.
Mulaudzi urged community members to protect paramedics while on duty.
In a separate incident, two paramedics were robbed while loading a patient into the ambulance on Wednesday night in Phoenix, KwaZulu-Natal.
It is alleged that the paramedics were held up by three suspects, who robbed them of their valuables.
About a week ago, two paramedics were shot and robbed in Amatikwe, Inanda, North of Durban while responding to a fake emergency call.
It is believed that the paramedics met a guide who was supposed to give them directions to the alleged scene.
The man led them to a dirt road and while on the dirt road, he produced a firearm and demanded their valuables.
During the incident one paramedic was shot in the back and the other was shot on the wrist.
On January 2, hijackers attacked two paramedics at a filling station in Lenasia. During the attack hijackers managed to get away in the paramedics vehicle and no one sustained injuries.
On December 31, 2018 Alexandra, fire fighters monitoring New Year’s festival were attacked by alleged hijackers.
The South African Emergency Personnel’s Union came under attack in December when it stated that it was considering sending it's members for firearm training and providing them with guns to protect themselves from attacks.
The union said some of their members were already carrying firearms to protect themselves from attackers who see them as easy targets.
At the time, the union's Mpho Mpogeng said some paramedics in parts of Gauteng, the Eastern and Western Cape already go to work armed to protect themselves against attackers.