Tebogo Monama

Tebogo Monama

Two would-be hijackers with an expensive taste had set their eyes on a Porsche Carrera parked at a shopping centre in Northcliff, Johannesburg, yesteday. But they got more than they had bargained for.

The two armed thugs lay dead minutes after they attempted to snatch the car from a woman.

People sat and enjoyed their lunch while the hijackers lay dead in the parking lot of the Firdrive Centre shopping centre, shot dead by a police reservist after attempting to hijack a woman's luxury car.

Zanele Majola, an employee at a hair salon in the complex, said: "The woman came to pick up her friend's daughter at the salon when the whole thing happened. She came out of the car and was suddenly confronted by two men."

Majola said one of the men held a gun against her head while trying to take her jewellery and car keys. Majola ran to her employer and pleaded with her to call the police.

"We were all panicking. My boss told me to set the alarm off but I did not know where it was."

The two men were stopped dead in their tracks when an off-duty police reservist who was at the complex confronted them.

The thugs then responded by firing shots at the reservist who retaliated by also shooting back, killing both of them.

The lifeless body of one of the men was slumped on the steering wheel while his colleague's was on the ground next to the car.

Police spokesman Superitendent Lungelo Dlamini said the woman was not hurt but traumatised.

"No one else was injured and no arrests have been made," Dlamini said.