Three dead, one nabbed and firearms recovered after a business premises burglary in Mhluzi, Mpumalanga

Pretoria: The South African Police Service’s Crime Intelligence continues to lead various multi-disciplinary task teams on intelligence-driven operations that yield desired outcomes to squeeze the space of criminals to zero.

In the early hours of this morning the team conducted a crime intelligence operation to follow up on information about suspects that had plans to break into and rob business premises in Mhluzi, near Middelburg, Mpumalanga province. The operation saw police being involved in a shoot-out with the suspects where three were fatally wounded, one was arrested, and three unlicensed firearms (two rifles and a pistol) as well as two vehicles were recovered.

On arrival at the place, the Team discovered that a safe inside one of the premises had already been blown up. The suspects then allegedly started shooting their way out of the situation. The police returned fire but the suspects fled the scene with undisclosed amount of money in three vehicles.

A high speed chase and exchange of fire with the suspects while police were in pursuit of the vehicles resulted in two of the suspects’ vehicles coming to a halt, one as a result of all three occupants being fatally wounded during the shootout and the driver of the other vehicle lost control. Four occupants from that vehicle fled on foot. The police chased after the suspects with the support of the SAPS K9 Unit and managed to arrest one suspect. A manhunt for the remaining suspects is underway while the arrested suspect, aged 28, is currently being linked to other serious and violent crimes.