Gangs of heavily armed criminals struck two farming communities north of the city during the early hours of on Tuesday morning for the second time in less than 48 hours.

The attacks, which took place within hours of each other, saw a woman caretaker raped and a family of four tied up and terrorised.


The assaults, which took place in Kameeldrift and Cullinan, come after prominent city lawyer, Stephanus Cilliers, 66, was found dead, with a gunshot wound to the side, in his smallholding near Rayton on Monday morning by his son.

Rayton is situated between Cullinan and Kameeldrift.

In Tuesday's first assault, two men attacked a woman caretaker and her husband near the Agricultural Research Centre in Kameeldrift. The couple opened their door to the attackers after the latter pretended to need help.

Police spokesperson Constable Mabel Sibande said as the suspects attacked the woman, her husband managed to escape and run for help.

She said while the husband was calling for help, the two men, one of whom is believed to have had a handgun, dragged the wife into the bushes and raped her.

"By the time police arrived at the smallholding the men had fled," she said, adding that members of the police dog unit found the woman in the bushes after a short search.

She said the men had attacked a security guard at a neighbouring farm after he spotted them trying to break into a building.

"When the security guard saw the men, they pistol whipped him, stole his cellphone and fled," she said.

In the second attack, a man was arrested moments after a Cullinan mother and her three teenage children were tied up and terrorised by four robbers shortly after her husband left for work.

The men, three of whom were armed with guns, surprised the woman as she was waking her children to get ready for school. Police said the men tied the family up in a bedroom before they ransacked the house and fled in the family's car.

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