Gauteng police hunt for ‘heavily armed’ gang after Soweto CIT heist

Gauteng police are on the hunt for a “heavily armed” gang who attacked and robbed a G4S cash van in Soweto, Johannesburg, on Monday.

According to national police spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe, the cash van was attacked around 09:30 in Jaca Road, Dobsonville Extension 3, by the gang.

“It’s alleged that a group of heavily armed men travelling in a red Jeep with false number plates drove into the van, forcing it to come to a halt. They thereafter ordered the three security officials out of the vehicle, where they later bombed the cash van and drove off with an undisclosed amount of money.”

The men then fled the scene in a Golf 7, an Audi A4, a Ford Ranger and a BMW 1 series, Mathe added.

No injuries were reported.

Arrests are still to be confirmed by police.

However, police have issued a stern warning about the looting of cash-in-transit crime scenes.

See video of the looting here:

“It is often seen in videos posted on social media platforms that money at cash-in-transit (CIT) heist crime scenes are being looted. We are appealing to community members to refrain from such criminality.

“We have noted such acts of criminality playing out at the latest CIT heist that took place in Dobsonville on Monday morning and of another CIT that took place two weeks ago in Kagiso. In both incidents, dozens of community members accessed the crime scenes and looted scattered money that was found to be lying on the ground ,with some still in the cash van.

“When a crime is committed, it is the responsibility of the community to report the incident to the police by immediately calling the Crime Stop Number on 086 00 10111 and/or to report the matter to their nearest police station.”

She added that cash-in-transit heist crime scenes could be very dangerous, especially if explosives are used during the robberies.

“It is for this reason that we warn members of the community that in some instances, it is possible that not all explosives were detonated at the time when the robbery was committed. This therefore poses a risk for the detonator to explode in their presence, thereby posing a risk for the loss of life.”

She also said those looting at such crime scenes were contaminating the scene, which constituted a crime of theft as well as defeating the ends of justice.

News24 previously reported a similar incident in which a cash-in-transit van was bombed in Chamdor, Krugersdorp. In a video of that incident, people are seen scrambling for money left on the floor from the explosion while a car burns behind them.

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