One person has died and a suspected robber was injured during a shootout with police in Uitenhage on Wednesday.
The drama unfolded in the afternoon when four armed men stormed into a supermarket in Caledon Street, holding staff and customers at gunpoint and taking cash from the tills and the fleeing in a getaway car.
Police spokesperson, Sergeant Majola Nkohli, says onlookers alerted police in a passing police patrol vehicle and they gave chase.
They caught up with a getaway vehicle in Park Lane in Uitenhage where the robbers abandoned their car and opened fire on police who returned fire.
Nkohli says other police units responded which resulted in the arrest of three suspects, one of who had been wounded during the shoot-out.
He says police inspected the get-away vehicle and found the body of a man in the boot.
Nkohli says at this stage, it is unknown whether the deceased was hijacked and killed in the crossfire or if he was working with the suspects.
No police officers were injured during the incident.
The three men aged between 24 and 36 are due to appear in the Uitenhage Magistrate’s Court soon on charges ranging from business robbery to attempted murder.
An inquest docket was also opened and is to be investigated by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate.
Picture: Supplied
