A policeman and three suspected robbers were killed in a shootout after a high speed chase north of Durban on Thursday, KwaZulu-Natal police said.
Police chased the five men after they received a tip-off of an armed robbery in Newark near Stanger, Inspector Mfizi Ngcobo said on Friday.
”They chased the men for about 15km to Sundumbili where a shootout ensued,” he said.
Thirty-eight-year-old Inspector Premchand Bhaganawas was shot in the stomach, chest, neck and head, while a sergeant was shot in the leg.
Police shot dead three of the suspected robbers.
Ngcobo said the other two men, aged 16 and 25, were arrested. One of them was treated in hospital in Richard’s Bay. The two men are expected to appear in either the Empangeni or Richard’s Bay Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
The death of the inspector brings the number of policemen killed since Saturday to at least four.
Senior Superintendent Elias Mashau was shot dead in Soweto on Saturday when wanted criminal Paul Khumalo escaped from a police holding cell.
Detective Inspector Patrick Khoza was shot and robbed of his firearm alongside a road in Vosloorus on the East Rand on Monday, while Sergeant Mohen Govender was shot while sitting in his car at a Tongaat beach on Wednesday night.
In Soshanguve in Pretoria on Thursday, a policeman was shot and robbed of his firearm. He was taken to the Acacia clinic in a serious condition. – Sapa