Flying squad members of the SA Police Service (SAPS) in Cape Town arrested three suspects believed to have hijacked a Toyota Avanza vehicle on Saturday, police confirmed.

“Members of [the] flying squad reacted on a radio broadcast during the early hours of this morning that a Toyota Avanza was hijacked in Philippi East,” said police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Andrè Traut.

“The surrounding area was searched and the hijacked vehicle was eventually spotted in Baden Powell Drive, on the side of the road,” added Traut.

The three suspects, two of them aged 18 and the other aged 24, were approached and subsequently arrested.

According to Traut, one of the suspects was found in possession of a .22 calibre revolver which was reported stolen in 2017 in Table View.

The suspects are expected to appear in the Muizenberg Magistrates Court on Monday on charges of possession of a stolen vehicle and possession of an unlicensed and stolen firearm.

Earlier this week, three suspects were apprehended after members of the flying squad responded to gunshots in Athlone.

A Toyota Avanza with two male occupants were firing shots from the vehicle. Police pursued the vehicle, and arrested the occupants after they collided with a tree in Klipfontein Road.

Police established that the vehicle had been hijacked and that two men had been shot and killed not far from where the suspects, aged 18 and 26, were arrested.

(Source: News24)