GunFacts South Africa - Getting Real about Guns!

Now it's high-rise robbery
By Graeme HoskenJuly 20 2007 at 07:21AM

In a brazen lunchtime attack, three gunmen stormed the 22nd floor of a high-rise building in the heart of Pretoria.

They stole cash, then disconnected telephones and destroyed cellphone SIM cards - before calmly taking a lift and walking off scot-free.

Thursday's attack gridlocked the city as police blocked off roads around the SALU building on the corner of Andries and Schoeman streets after learning that the robbers were apparently still hiding in the 28-storey building.

'They screamed at us, threatening to shoot us'

With a helicopter circling overhead, police and tracker dogs were seen scouring the building floor by floor.

They searched stairwells, corridors and offices for the men who had earlier attacked the staff of a Pretoria wholesaler.

The gunmen, whose identity and whereabouts are still unknown, launched their 10-minute attack on Andenco Investments just before lunchtime.

Walking into the reception area, the robbers, armed with handguns, forced the receptionists into the company's boardroom. They then grabbed employees conducting job interviews and threw them to the floor.

Pretoria Central police station spokesperson Captain Tessa Jansen said that after forcing staff into the boardroom the gunmen grabbed a supervisor and the head of the company and dragged them to an administration office.

"They tied them up with masking tape and demanded keys to a safe."

"When the two told their attackers the keys were with another employee, who was out of the office, the gunmen turned on them, roughing them up before grabbing a cellphone and a wallet and dragging them back to their colleagues."

Jansen said the gunmen then forced staff to hand over their cellphone SIM cards, which they are believed to have destroyed so that they could not alert police.

The gunmen fled, apparently in a lift, taking money, a cellphone and a wallet.

Police were appealing for anyone with information on the robbers' identities or whereabouts to contact them.

Traumatised staff were seen huddling around each other and smoking cigarettes as detectives tried to piece the attack together.

An Andenco Investments staff member said: "Everything happened so quickly."

"The robbers were extremely professional and seemed to know exactly what they were doing and what they were looking for."

"They screamed at us, threatening to shoot us if we tried to do anything 'stupid' such as phone for help," said an employee who asked not to be identified.

A businesswoman who was on the 22nd floor when the attack occurred said she had not even known there was a robbery until the police arrived.

"It is clear that these robbers knew exactly what they were doing," said Janet de Villiers.

Trying to leave the building had been a nightmare. "It was crazy. People did not know what was going on. Some were still coming into the building while others were trying to get out. No wonder the robbers had managed to escape with such ease," she said.

Motorists stuck in traffic around neighbouring blocks were seen screaming at metro police who blockaded roads and were refusing to allow them to drive past until the building had been checked.

A motorist said the blockades were ridiculous as the robbers "would not be stupid enough to hang around in a building they could not escape from, especially with the police outside".

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