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Durban - Police and suspected armed robbers exchanged gunfire in a high-speed car chase that wove through Morningside in Durban on Tuesday afternoon.
The pursuit and dramatic gun battle followed an intelligence-driven operation that saw officers thwarting a bank robbery.
Two men were arrested. Another two are on the run.
According to several police sources, who cannot be named because they are not authorised to speak to the press, officers confronted a gang of men as they lay in wait outside the Standard Bank on Chris Hani [North Coast] Road, Briardene.
Acting on knowledge gained from an informant network, Crime Intelligence agents set to work.
It is understood that when the gang saw the police officers, they fled in their getaway vehicle, moving across the Connaught Interchange.
“We received information that they were going to hit the bank and their vehicle was spotted outside [the bank] yesterday [on Monday]. Officers went to the bank but the suspicious car fled before they arrived. Today [Tuesday] they were spotted again at the bank and that is how this whole thing started,” a source said.
As the chase wove through traffic, the gunmen and police exchanged gunfire, halting briefly on Smiso Nkwanyana [Goble] Road where the robbers ditched their car and hijacked a Mercedes-Benz.
With police hot on their heels and boxed-in as reinforcements descended, the robbers rammed a police car that obstructed their escape before abandoning the car and rushing into a clothing shop on Stamford Hill Road.
In the aisles of the shop, one gunman was shot and wounded by police officers and the other was felled by a police dog.
Officers recovered an AK47 and a pistol that were used in the shooting. The crime scene has been cordoned off.
Police spokespeople were not immediately available for comment.
