/ 11 October 2006

Cops ‘working round the clock’ after Jo’burg heist

Police were ”working around the clock” after a baby girl was killed and seven other people were wounded in a shooting during a cash-in-transit heist in central Johannesburg on Tuesday.

”Our investigators are working around the clock to arrest the culprits,” Senior Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said on Wednesday.

The incident in which one-year-old Khensani Mtaleni was shot and killed occurred outside a Charlie Parkers cosmetic shop on the corner of Bree and Wanderers streets at about noon on Tuesday.

Two Coin security guards had just collected money from the shop when they were approached by between six and eight men. The gunmen stole a cash box and a shoot-out with the guards ensued. All the eight victims were bystanders.

The robbers made off with the cash box containing an undisclosed sum of money.

A witness said three of the gunmen escaped in a white bakkie and the others ran away.

Police had opened cases of murder, armed robbery and attempted murder.

”We hope to make arrests as soon as possible,” Engelbrecht said. – Sapa