Durban – Police shot dead two suspected robbers and arrested two others following a shootout in Durban in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Officers had received intelligence of a “group of heavily armed men in a minibus taxi and a sedan who were breaking into business premises on Smith Street in the Durban CBD with the aim of bombing ATMs and stealing from other businesses,” said police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele.
She said officers approached the group just after midnight and exchanged shots, killing two suspects in the process.
Two men in their thirties were arrested in an apparent getaway vehicle. Officers seized a rifle, a pistol and housebreaking implements such as grinders and hammers.
The men in custody would be charged with attempted murder, burglary at business premises, possession of unlicensed firearms and possession of housebreaking implements.
They are expected to appear in the Durban Magistrates Court on Monday.
Mbele said no police officers were injured.
“A search for [other] suspects who fled is continuing. The bodies of two deceased suspects were retrieved from the building by police officers from the Search and Rescue Unit.”
