Three men will appear in court in Port Elizabeth on Monday for a brazen attack on two police officials this week in which their firearms were stolen.
Police spokespeson, Captain Andre' Beetge, says a gang of at least eight armed suspects attacked the police members on Thursday night when they responded to a domestic violence complaint.
He says the gang stormed the police vehicle, strangling a female police member as she called for help on the radio.
Beetge says fortunately other police patrols were able to respond leading to the arrest of three suspects.
Five others were able to escape.
Beetge says one of the men arrested was a suspected wanted by police for the past three years for murder and robbery.
"This 29 year old male has been sought for a string of robbery cases and murder in Port Elizabeth area up to as far as Cradock in the Eastern Cape. The other two suspects are aged 48 and 21."
Beetge said "this is the second incident in the past ten days where the most wanted criminals in Port Elizabeth have been arrested. Last week two other most wanted suspects were arrested and also two fire arms confiscated that was in their possession," he said.
The South African Police Service Cluster Commander for Motherwell Cluster, Major General Funeka Siganga responded: "We are sweeping our policing areas and we are pleased that we have managed to arrest these most wanted criminals that have been responsible for so many robbery and murder cases and terrorising our community. We have detected information on various occasions that these criminals were planning to attack and rob our police men and women for their fire arms. Last night's attack confirms this, however we have shown them that we will not be soft targets."
