THANDI XABA
A police officer has been shot in a shootout in Twin City Mall in Heidedal, Bloemfontein last night.
Police spokesperson Captain Harry Nagel says the officer was shot in the hand after a group of men driving a bakkie and dressed in overalls and balaclavas robbed a chain-store, taking an undisclosed amount of money.
They further robbed the liquor outlet of the store taking several expensive bottles of liquor. Some of the men managed to flee while others were left to have a shoot-out with a police van that had responded to the complaint.
Nagel says the remaining group then hijacked a vehicle occupied by a woman and a child before fleeing the scene.
"The men then hijacked a car in which a woman and child were sitting, the child was left at the entrance of the mall where the police found it and the woman was dropped at Pelonomi Hospital with injuries she might have sustained during the robbery.
The hijiacked car was found abandoned at Batho and the bakkie was found at East End," says Captain Nagel.
Nagel says no arrests have been yet and the police member will be operated on today.
No further injuries were sustained expect the trauma customers of the stores sustained. Police have opened a case of business robbery, hijacking and attempted murder.
