Manhunt for Cape Town CIT heist gunmen after driver killed in shooting

A security guard died in a hail of gunfire before dawn at a Cape Town shopping centre on Thursday.

The Western Cape police commissioner’s office said a manhunt was underway for gunmen who opened fire on a cash-in-transit vehicle at a retail centre in Welgelegen in Cape Town’s northern suburbs.

The ambush took place at around 6.45am. The security guard had been waiting for colleagues to fetch cash from a store in the centre. The driver was shot, and then apparently tried to make a getaway.

Instead, he crashed through the garage of a nearby residential home. The cash-in-transit van came to a standstill after smashing deep into the home’s double garage.

He was understood to have sustained many bullet wounds, and died of his injuries.

Back at the shopping centre, another guard was shot and wounded at the entrance to the store.

The killers fled in two vehicles with a “substantial amount of cash” – a black Opel Corsa, stolen in Khayelitsha in June, and a white VW Golf GTI.

Police spokesperson Novela Potelwa said police were investigating cases of murder, attempted murder and business robbery.

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