Donga foils robbers' escape

2007-11-01 21:12

Johannesburg - Mpumalanga police arrested two bank robbers as they clambered out of a donga they fell into while fleeing the scene of a botched heist on Thursday.

Superintendent Abie Khoabane said 33-year-old bank employee Pam Mashinini was returning to work after lunch when she felt "something" pressed against her neck.

"When she looked, (she saw) a man was holding a gun to her neck," he said.

The gunman and two accomplices went into the bank with her, ordering everyone inside the lie on the ground.

However, people outside had seen Mashinini being accosted and peered through the bank's windows to see what was going on inside, said Khoabane.

This spooked the robbers, who opened fire as they beat a hasty empty-handed retreat from the bank.

A 28-year-old court orderly was having his car filled with petrol at a nearby garage when he saw the three men running away. He gave chase.

The robbers' flight ended, though, when all three of them went hurtling into a donga concealed in the curve of a road.

Fourth robber sought

The constable orderly arrested one of them after the suspect tossed his firearm aside to clamber out of the donga.

Another policeman - who had arrived in response to the orderly's call for back-up - arrested a second robber and seized his unlicensed firearm.

The third robber escaped.

Khoabane said members of the community later led the police to a vehicle it was believed the robbers had intended using to make their getaway.

It was established that the Mazda 323 was stolen in Silverton, Pretoria, in August 2002.

He said police were now looking for a fourth robber, as the modus operandi of bank-heist gangs was to have a driver waiting in the car, to help them make a speedy escape.

Khoabane said the two men arrested were aged 37 and 28, and both were South African.

- SAPA