A TAXI driver had a lucky escape after two “passengers” attempted to hijack him at gunpoint on the Berea on Monday night.
Blue Security operations manager Brian Jackson said an armed response officer responded to the scene where he arrested one of the alleged hijackers after the taxi crashed into the fence of a property in Stephen Dlamini Road at around 10.30pm.
“The taxi driver picked up two passengers in Mahatma Ghandi Road who advised him that they wanted to go to the Musgrave area. They directed him to drive along Stephen Dlamini Road but he became suspicious after they asked him to turn around and drive back the way he had already come. He refused to follow their directions,” Jackson said.
He said one of the men pulled out a firearm and ordered him to obey their instructions but the driver turned around and grabbed the armed passenger and wrestled with him while the taxi was still in motion.
“The taxi then crashed into the palisade fence and the passenger dropped the firearm and fled on foot. The taxi driver managed to grab the other suspect and was still wrestling with him when our officer arrived,” he said.
Jackson said the officer arrested the alleged hijacker and recovered the firearm and live ammunition which were handed over to the Berea SAPS who attended the scene of the crime.
