Ambulance crew robbed in Cape Town

Emergency medical crews are receiving counselling after being robbed while treating patients over the weekend in the Western Cape.

Paramedics were treating a patient in the back of an ambulance when robbers forced their way inside and stole their belongings in the southern Cape town of George on Saturday.

In a second incident on the same evening‚ emergency management services staff narrowly escaped when community members tried to get inside their ambulance at Site B in Khayelitsha‚ Cape Town. The crew managed to drive off with their patient.

EMS spokesperson Robert Daniels said both incidents were reported to the police.

“Both crews were unharmed but are receiving counselling‚” he said.

“In light of the recent jail sentence handed down after similar criminal attacks on EMS‚ we request members of the community to come forward with information so they can put a stop to these senseless attacks on emergency services‚” he said.

Siphelo Manunga was sentenced to a 12-year prison term in October after being convicted of robbing EMS staff in Khayelitsha. The incident took place in December 2016 when an ambulance crew were helping an injured person. Three men robbed the crew of their cellphones.

Daniels said the weekend incidents did not occur in designated “Red Zones”.

“Should an area be declared a Red Zone no EMS vehicle or staff will go into the area without a police escort‚ which will result in delayed response times and delayed emergency medical care in the area‚” he said.

An ambulance crew transporting a seriously injured eight-year-old boy involved in a car accident were robbed at gunpoint on the N2 in Cape Town in November. The child passed away in hospital.