Canaan Mdletshe

Canaan Mdletshe

Fourteen pensioners, two security guards and one pay master were seriously injured in a shootout between Cash Paymaster Security guards and a group of armed robbers just after 8am at Lindela Store in Nkandla.

Superintendent Vincent Mdunge said the CPS guards were preparing to pay out pensions when they were attacked.

"A group of people armed with AK-47s and handguns held guards at gunpoint. A shootout ensued, resulting in two guards being injured," he said. "The robbers fled with an undisclosed amount of money.

"No arrests have been made yet," he said.

Mdunge said some of the injured were airlifted to hospital in a serious condition.

"I arrived at the store early in the morning to get the money," said pensioner Sithokozile Zuma.

"There was this young man behind me. He phoned someone on his cellphone and said that the vehicles had arrived.

"Within minutes, he was in front of me. He produced a gun and hit the security guard on the head. I ran away as other robbers appeared and started firing," she said.