Staff at a Cape Winelands petrol station were given counselling after a pre-dawn raid by ATM bombers.
|||Cape Town - Workers at a Cape Winelands petrol station were given counselling on Thursday after a pre-dawn raid by ATM bombers.
The attack was at a Shell petrol station and shop on the R102 in Firgrove, a hamlet between Somerset West, Macassar and Eerste River.
The drama unfolded shortly after 3.30am when the robbers shot their way into the shop before blowing up the ATM outside.
Workers in the garage shop first heard a man trying to open the door, then kicking it.
A security guard inside approached the locked door and was about to open it - believing the man was a potential customer - when the man drew a gun. The guard and two cashiers fled to the back of the shop - two into a storeroom, which they locked, and the guard into a bathroom.
But the would-be bombers shot the front glass door’s locks open to get inside.
Kicking at the door, they demanded workers open the doors they had locked, but they refused.
Outside, petrol attendants were being held up at gunpoint while the robbers primed their explosives.
Workers, who were too scared to be named, said they heard a massive bang, which shook the building, but remained behind the locked doors. The robbers fled, with cash but on Thursday it was not yet known how much.
Traumatised workers were being counselled on the scene, while investigators from the Hawks, the Directorate of Priority Crime Inve tigation, combed the scene.
There was a gaping hole in the building, where the ATM had been.
Dineo Pooe, media relations manager for Shell, confirmed the attack, but did not wish to confirm any details.
The police confirmed the ATM “was damaged by an explosive device”.
Anyone with information can contact Crime Stop on 08600 10111.
Cape Argus