Cops in shootout with 4 teens

2003-11-01 15:55

Pretoria - Four teenagers were arrested after a shoot-out with Pretoria police on Friday and charged with armed robbery, attempted murder and attempted rape.

Inspector Anton Breedt said on Saturday that a police patrol at Silverton went to investigate a minibus parked in the bushes alongside Hans Strydom Avenue around 15:30.

As the patrol approached the vehicle, four young men emerged and ran away, firing at police at the same time.

Breedt said police returned fire and chased the youths on foot for over a kilometre, eventually cornering them and placing them under arrest.

Investigations at the scene established that the four, aged 14 and 15, had allegedly hijacked the 36-year-old minibus taxi driver at gunpoint and had held a woman passenger, 28, hostage while they attempted to rape her.

Breedt said the arrested teenagers would appear in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Monday.

- SAPA