Five men were injured during an attempted robbery at a jewellery store in Sandton City at 9.30am on Monday, ambulance service ER24 said.
”A group of about six men wearing traditional Indian clothing attempted to rob the jewellery store in Sandton City. It is unclear whether they got anything,” Nick Dollman, ER24 scene safety officer, said.
The robbers ran down the steps towards the Sandton Sun and Towers Intercontinental hotel and shot their way through the hotel’s glass doors to where a getaway car was waiting in Fifth Street.
Dollman said: ”It was apparently very well organised.”
One man, who was either a guard or an employee of the hotel, was shot through the leg as the gang came down the escalators into the hotel. Three security guards were shot in the legs and were in a stable condition.
A chauffeur was hit as the gang shot out the glass doors of the hotel.
He was struck in the calf as a bullet ricocheted off a nearby surface.
The robbers were carrying handguns and automatic rifles.
There were shards of broken glass at the hotel entrance and a number of residents had been moved to the Sandton Sun Intercontinental in Fifth Street.
John de Canha, hotel spokesperson, said: ”Thankfully there were no serious injuries and no deaths involved.”
He said police reacted ”exceptionally quickly” and everything was well under control.
The men’s getaway vehicle was found on William Nicol Drive in Fourways.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Chris Wilken confirmed the incident, but said no further details were immediately available. — Sapa