Farmers, SAPS and community members launched a search yesterday afternoon for four armed men who had earlier hijacked a Glencoe farmer’s vehicle.

Farm security group officials who spoke to the Dundee Courier but did not want to be named said the farmer was threatened with firearms after he saw the suspects on his property and they asked him for a lift.

Quick-thinking employee raises alarm

They forced him into the back of the bakkie and one of the gunmen drove the vehicle. A farm employee on a tractor noticed an unidentified man behind the wheel and realised something was amiss. He tried to stop the bakkie by hitting the front of it with the tractor plough.

A shot was fired, but no one was injured. The farmer was later dropped off uninjured, and the bakkie was recovered near Corobrik, where the suspects appeared to have disappeared into the thick bush.

A manhunt is continuing.

The Umzinyathi SAPS district office has been asked to comment on the incident, but no response had been received at the time of publishing.

*The article has been amended since it was first published to indicate that the farmer is from Glencoe and not Dundee as initially reported.

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