Robbers made off with tens of thousands of rands in cash during a daring daylight cash-in-transit heist at a Pretoria newspaper office.
The four men, armed with assault rifles and handguns, attacked a Coin security guard as he was walking out of the second floor Arcadia Street office of Rapport in Hatfield at lunchtime on Monday.
They grabbed the guard, forced him into a lift at gunpoint, and robbed him of an estimated R60 000 without firing a shot.
The gunmen are believed to have followed the cash van on its collection and drop-off route for nearly two hours before launching their attack. But police said they were investigating information that several of the robbers had been waiting outside the building before the guards arrived.
Esme Herbst, administrative head at Rapport's Pretoria offices, said the guard had just collected money from the weekend's newspaper sales when the attack happened.
"As the guard walked out of our office, a neatly dressed man carrying a big envelope attacked him, pushing a gun to his head and forced him into the open lift," she said.
Herbst said when the lift reached the ground floor the gunmen pushed the second floor button before fleeing, sending the lift back up to their offices.
"I am just grateful that nobody was hurt. It was very scary," she said.
Police Inspector Katlego Mogale said the gunmen fled in a black Tazz which was parked close by.
