According to police, the suspects were planning to rob a cash-in-transit truck and were responsible for similar crimes elsewhere in the country.
Police in South Africa have killed 18 suspected robbers in a shootout in Limpopo province, police said.
The suspects are believed to be planning a cash-in-transit (CIT) robbery and were responsible for similar crimes in other provinces, National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola said on Friday from the scene in South Africa northernmost province.
“We believe this syndicate was involved in a number of CITs in this province, Mpumalanga and Gauteng,” Masemola told reporters in Makhado, about 400 km (250 miles) northeast of Johannesburg.
A police officer was “very seriously injured” in the shooting, which lasted about 90 minutes, he added.
According to police, who had been tracking the suspects’ movements for several days, an investigation began in January with the help of the country’s secret service.
“As soon as the police approached the address, the group of suspects started shooting, the police retaliated,” the South African police said in a statement. “Sixteen men and two women were pronounced dead at the scene.”
Masemola told reporters that police intended to “arrest them before they go out and commit the crime.”
High crime rate
In this crime-ridden country, robberies of cash-in-transit vehicles occur regularly.
Last year, 10 suspects died in a shootout with police on a cash-in-transit truck after the suspected robbers fired at a police helicopter, wounding one of the pilots.
In May, Police Minister Bheki Cele said there was a “stubborn increase” in cash-in-transit thefts of more than 20 percent, with 64 cases reported in the first three months of the year.
Crime statistics, which the minister presents quarterly in a live broadcast, have risen steadily in recent months in a country that has one of the highest crime rates in the world.
Police said they were “addressing serious and violent crimes across the country”.
Four people found in “another safe house” have been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to rob a cash-in-transit truck.
Masemola said there was also an “explosive that was ready to be used because they wanted to hit one of the cash depots in the province.”
He said the suspects planned to transport the money to Gauteng province by ambulance.