A truck driver was shot and a courier vehicle driver kidnapped and left in a sugarcane field in two separate hijacking incidents along the Umdloti offramp on Wednesday afternoon.
In the first incident, at approximately 12h00, the Marshall Security Emergency Dispatch Centre was alerted to the hijacking of a courier vehicle that had occurred on the N2 highway north bound in the vicinity of the Umdloti offramp. Members responded to the scene and managed to find the motorist and his vehicle which was stationary on the M27 just between RTI Umdloti and Waterloo.
Reports from the scene indicated that the courier vehicle had been hijacked by an unknown amount of suspects armed with handguns at the Umdloti offramp. The suspects had kidnapped the driver and travelled to a nearby sugarcane field on the M27, where they proceeded to empty all the contents of the courier vehicle and transferred it into their own.
The suspects then left the driver and his vehicle in the sugarcane fields and fled the scene in an unknown direction. The driver made his way to the M27 for assistance. The scene was secured by our members and the Verulam SAPS were called out, who arrived a few minutes later and took over for processing and further investigation.
Later that same afternoon, at approximately 16h00, the Marshall Security Emergency Dispatch Centre received a second report of a hijacking in progress on the N2 highway south bound, again at the Umdloti offramp. An unknown amount of armed suspects were attempting to hijack a truck.
Various members were alerted and proceeded to the scene where it was established that the suspects had failed to hijack the truck, but that the driver had been shot during the altercation. As the truck driver attempted to flee from the hijackers, they opened fire in an attempt to stop the vehicle, and the truck crashed into the armco barrier as a result. The suspects proceeded to gain entry to the vehicle and stole the driver’s cellphone before fleeing the scene in a silver vehicle.
Medi-Response arrived on scene and transported the injured driver to a nearby private facility for the further medical care that he required. He was in a stable condition and is believed to have been discharged later that evening.
The scene was secured by members of our Special Operations Team and was handed over to the Durban North SAPS who will be investigating a case of attempted hijacking, armed robbery and attempted murder.
