'There were lots of shots, too many': Shootout with cops leaves six dead

A factory worker - caught in the crossfire during a gun battle between police and cash-in-transit robbers in Durban on Monday - recounted his brush with death.

He had stepped outside for a bite to eat when fleeing gunmen crashed their car nearby, with police hot on their heels.

"There were lots of shots, too many," said the worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

It was in this quiet cul-de-sac outside a Parlock factory that the showdown between the robbers and police played out.

When the shooting stopped, five men were dead in two crime scenes that stretched kilometres across the city.

A sixth man died in hospital. Four civilians were injured in the crossfire.

"It was lunchtime so we came to get something to chow outside.

"The kerels (police) came and then we saw the Mercedes [Benz]. The robbers were shooting at the cops and at us and the cops were shooting at them," the witness said.

He said he and his colleagues fled for their lives as salvos of fire were traded.

The deadly face-off began in Springfield Park's Value Centre, where a heavily armed gang of men attempted to rob an armoured car.

A police source said the crime intelligence unit and the Hawks acted on a tip-off with the SAPS's national intervention unit.

The bullet-riddled body of a gunman lay on the pavement surrounded by bullet casings.

Another suspect lay wounded nearby. Strapped to his legs were bags of muti. He later died in Addington Hospital.