A Cape Town church community has been left reeling after three armed men tried to rob the church during a Sunday service.
|||Cape Town - A Cape Town church community has been left reeling after three men carrying “at least two guns” tried to rob the church during a Sunday service.
“We were in the middle of a service when we heard screaming outside,” said Pastor Terran Williams.
“A woman came in and said there was a man with a gun outside.”
The incident took place during a service at The Range in Tokai, where the church has been holding its services for the last three years. A congregation of about 400 people were present at the second service of the “informal family church”.
Police confirmed on Wednesday that a case of armed robbery had been opened. No arrests have been made.
According to Williams, who said he had spoken to members of the congregation who witnessed the crime, the men were dressed in formal suits and holding Bibles.
They apparently demanded cash but no cash was kept on the premises.
Williams said the attempted robbery was, however, thwarted by a brave security guard, Patrick Gibril, who confronted the men.
He said while Gibril was not seriously hurt, one of the gunmen had struck him on the head.
“Our community took him to hospital were he had tests for concussion. There are also a couple of people available to him for post-traumatic stress counselling.”
Williams said the whole community hoped he would be back at work this Sunday so that they could “honour him publicly”.
Williams, however, said he was impressed with how the majority of the congregation had handled the incident.
He also said he would hold a debriefing in his service on Sunday.
“We are beefing up security. We and other churches are going to have to be more savvy in the future.”
Anyone with information can contact the investigating officer, Detective Constable Cheslin Brink on 021 702 8918 or 072 3551 912. - Cadet News Agency
matthew.hirsch@inl.co.za
Cape Argus