A Newlands West woman is the subject of praise after CCTV footage showing the bravery she displayed fending off a group of hijackers surfaced on social media.
Newlands West woman bravely fends off hijackers
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The harrowing scenes unfolded earlier this week, on a residential street in the township situated 15 kilometres north-west of Durban.
The woman, driving a red Volkswagen Polo, was about to disembark from the driveway of a property when she was ambushed by four men.
The suspects, caught on camera pulling off a daring daytime carjacking, had trailed the woman to the property in a silver Toyota Avanza, a vehicle commonly used for e-hailing services in South Africa.
The collective strength of the four suspects was not enough to pull the distraught woman out of her vehicle. In her flight-or-fight response, a physiological reaction that occurs in the midst of a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival, the woman, whose identity remains unknown, chose the latter.
Refusing to get out of the driver’s seat of her vehicle, and taking blows from four men in the process, the woman resisted long enough to spook the hijackers, who were well aware of the elevated risk of committing such a brazen crime in broad daylight.
Visibly shaken, the suspects abandoned their pursuits and fled the scene with only the woman’s handbag to award their efforts.
Details about the incident are still murky and it’s presumed the case has since been handed over to Durban police for further investigation.
Take a look at the CCTV footage of the failed hijacking attempt below: