Picture for illustration Purposes. Picture: Tracy Lee Stark
There were several tense hours in Kimberley on Thursday after a group of foreign nationals reportedly attacked police officers and damaged their cars.
According to police in the province, officers were conducting stop-and-search operations in the city when they found a man in possession of mandrax tablets, dagga and crystal meth.
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He reportedly resisted arrest and assaulted officers with “a tyre strap”.
Soon, a large group of what police believed to be foreign nationals joined in the assault and damaged police vehicles.
“Police fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. Three suspects were arrested for public violence and detained at the Kimberley Police Station,” police spokesperson Colonel Cherelle Ehlers explained.
The violence continued at the station.
There, suspects reportedly broke widows, and were charged with additional charges of malicious damage to property, while a group approached the station and allegedly threatened to retaliate.
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“The operational commander warned the group to disperse. Upon dispersing, the group damaged police vehicles. Another four suspects were arrested for malicious damage to property.”
Police continue to monitor the situation.
Earlier this year, police offices at the Verulam police station in KwaZulu-Natal were broken into and several valuables stolen.
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According to a private security company in the area, Reaction Unit South Africa (RUSA), it appeared as though the doors to the offices were forced open.
The station had been hit several months earlier, with a branded police vehicle stolen from the yard in daylight. It was later recovered on Court Lane in the Verulam CBD with its radio and spare tyre missing.
A hijacked Isuzu bakkie recovered by RUSA was also stolen from the same station a week later.
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