Thieves Rob Entire Hotel

A gang of thieves held up an entire hotel in northern KwaZulu-Natal, robbing the hotel, staff and guests of cash, cellphones and cars, police said on Wednesday.

Superintendent Jay Naicker said the gang of nine entered the Ghost Mountain Inn in the town of Mkuze shortly before midnight on Monday night.

The receptionist was forced to hand over keys for the hotel's two Toyota Land Cruisers, and the robbers then asked about two other vehicles in the parking lot.

The receptionist told the men that they belonged to hotel guests. The receptionist was then marched at gunpoint to the rooms of the unsuspecting guests, where the thieves took car keys as well as cash from them.

The nine men then fled in the hotel's two Toyota Land Cruisers and the guests' Volkswagen Caravelle and Land Rover Freelander.

Naicker said police in Mkuze were alerted, who in turn alerted police in Emanguzi. A search was launched and the thieves were cornered near Pelindaba. They abandoned the vehicles and fled into the bushes. Poor visibility hampered any search for the robbers.