JOHANNESBURG: South Africa police are hunting for a gang of armed robbers who blew up an armored cash-in-transit truck in busy traffic in Johannesburg, escaping with an undisclosed amount of money.
Police spokesman Lungelo Dlamini said Sunday that police recovered the two vehicles used in the heist and are hunting for the suspects but no arrests have been made.
The robbers, traveling in a BMW and a Mercedes-Benz, shot out the tires of the armored truck shortly before noon on Saturday as it was traveling toward Johannesburg’s international airport, according to police.
WATCH: Caught on camera: S. African robbers blow up armored van packed with cash
“The guards were forced out of the vehicle before the suspects blew their cash van up with explosives,” the police said in a statement. “The suspects took an undisclosed amount of money in cash boxes and one of the guard’s firearms. They fled from the scene in two vehicles.”
A video by a passerby shows a gridlock of traffic around the truck as cars turn away to escape the attack. The truck is hit by an explosion soon after.
Paramedics treated a motorist at the scene for minor injuries caused by flying debris that landed on a vehicle after the explosion, according to a statement from ER24, an emergency rescue service that responded to the incident.
Last month a shipment of cash was stolen from Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport. A gang disguised as policemen stole at least 1.8 million dollars in cash that was about to be loaded onto a South African Airways plane bound for London.
At least eight robbers, all of them wearing police uniforms, drove to the plane in an unmarked police van and two high powered vehicles and held up security guards as the money, in various currencies and packed in bags, was being loaded onto the airplane at around 7:45 p.m. on March 8.