The police arrested four suspects on Thursday morning in Johannesburg in connection with so-called follow-home robberies from OR Tambo International Airport.

"The suspects were allegedly planning a robbery when our team pounced on them as they were changing the number plates on their sedan‚" police spokesperson Brig Vishnu Naidoo said after the suspects were arrested in Alexandra.

Three of the suspects fled. After a high-speed chase and a shootout with police‚ their vehicle swerved off the road and crashed. One suspect was wounded.

"These suspects are believed to have been involved in multiple cases of people being followed from the OR Tambo airport and robbed‚" Naidoo said.

The police recovered two handguns and sent them to ballistics for testing to see if they were used in other crimes.

National police commissioner Khehla Sitole praised the officers: "I am very pleased with the progress we are making to significantly reduce this category of crime but more importantly I am equally pleased that our proactive strategy is yielding positive results."